Phoenix Ikner, the suspected shooter who stormed Florida State University on Thursday with his shooting spree, killing two, was not a social recluse as evident from his various social interactions. He was quoted in a news report on students’ protest against President Donald Trump ahead of his January 20 inauguration; his social media posts are plenty leading to speculations over his political leaning that he was a MAGA supporter.
Now an X post of a woman has gone viral who claimed to have known Phoenix Ikner when he was 16-17. They probably went to school together. “He’s not an anti-trumper, pro-palistine, pro-LGBTQ+, he is someone filled with hatred, someone who has been openly homophobic, racist, sexist, and a bully. Idc if he was republican or democratic he was someone hateful and that’s it,” the woman wrote and also posted a photo from a schoolbook to prove that she was not lying.
‘Ikner used to boast he had guns’
Ikner is a white supremacist, a conspiracy theorist which raised serious concerns among his classmates. One classmate from Ikner’s former school, Tallahassee State College, recalled how he was asked to leave a “political roundtable” club over his hate speech.
Another classmate said Ikner was vocal in their federal politics class, promoting his disturbing views about black people, as well as far-right conspiracy theories, such as that former President Joe Biden was fraudulently elected. He got kicked out of the political club because of his problematic views.
Step-son of a female cop, Ikner used to boast that he had guns, one classmate said. “I remember thinking this man should not have access to firearms,” he told USA Today.
Reid Seybold, an FSU student, told CNN he knew Ikner, whom he encountered in an extracurricular political club a few years ago. Seybold said Ikner was asked to leave the group, which discussed current events, due to behavior that unsettled others.
“He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming. That’s kind of when we reached the breaking point with Phoenix, and we asked him to leave,” Seybold told CNN.
