Following two deaths and numerous injuries in an April 17 campus shooting, survivors and community members at Florida State University joined together to lament and console one another during a vigil attracting hundreds of people.
Believed to be done by a student, the gunshot left the Tallahassee university in disarray.
We are a family. Hard times like this… we show up for one another,” University President Richard McCullough said during the evening of April 18 vigil, stifling tears. “We must maintain acting in that manner over the next many weeks. Reach out, pay attention, treat others kindly, be present.
Family members and close acquaintances identified the two men slain as dining vendor executive Tiru Chabba and dining services staffer Robert Morales. Although their identities are unknown, officials have said that those wounded include authorities and students.
The incident left six persons—including students—injured and transported them to a nearby hospital. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare officials say all of them should completely recover.
On April 17, the gunfire started rather near noon. Police said that 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner opened fire close to the student union, injuring responding campus police and was arrested around five minutes later. Those few minutes saw students running for safety and barricading themselves around university until officials located them.
“There is no handbook on our feelings at such events. I’m furious; you are furious too. I am dead cold. A few of you find themselves afraid. I realize that, during the vigil, McCullough said. “All those emotions are very reasonable. Tragic events have no appropriate reaction. Still, I want to be clear: you are not alone.
The victims included who?
45-year-old Chabba was an executive at Aramark, a university meal provider. An attorney retained by his family claims that his wife and two children survive the guy from Greenville, South Carolina. That day he was on campus at FSU working.
“It’s inconceivable,” Larry Lee, who once collaborated with Chabba at Aramark, said the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, a USA TODAY Network affiliate. “Oh, God.” Just told you, buddy, he was a nice guy. a decent, decent man.
Lee said Chabba was a “brilliant businessman” and enjoyed his career, but he also gave his family great attention.
Morales worked in dining facilities at FSU and was a passionate high school football coach. The native of Miami was found on X by his brother on post. “Today we lost my younger brother; he was among the FSU fatalities. He delighted in his work at FSU as well as in his lovely wife and daughter. The message added, “I’m glad you were in my Life.”
Morales was a partner at local favorite Gordos Cuban Cuisine and a special teams coach for Leon High School’s football team.
“He was a trusted coach, a respected colleague, and a cherished friend to many,” the school’s sports department said in a statement. “Every one of us at Leon High School feels great loss over Coach Morales, particularly in this trying and sad period.”
Coaching alongside Morales, Athletic Director Riley Bell said Morales has a “big heart.” He told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network, Morales spent around six to eight years with the program and was a “valuable” team member.
“A brilliant man. Good heart, family guy, Bell said. Just full of vitality and very content.
Fresh information on suspect shooting reveals
Ikner is the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, and detectives think he fired with the previous service pistol of the officer. He had spent years taking part in departmental youth initiatives.
Students and those who knew Ikner said he had a history of advocating extreme views. The Anti-Defamation League examined screenshots of his gaming accounts with Nazi and Hitler allusions, which revealed similarly concerning online activity.
“It’s just concerning,” said Carla Hill, senior director of investigative research at the center on extremism of the anti-hate organization. “What we are seeing – if in fact this person has extreme views and it seems at least he was exposed to extremism – is the continuous crossover between extremism and the glorification of violence that finally results in violence.”
Ikner is still in hospital after suffering injuries in the gunfire reaction.
“Once he is released from that facility, he will be taken to a local detention facility where he will face charges up to and including first-degree murder,” Chief Lawrence Revell of the Tallahasgee Police Department said.