According to US media, gunfire broke out at noon on April 17 (local time) at the student hall on the campus of Florida State University (FSU) in the capital Tallahassee. Students and faculty were asked to take shelter while police responded to the suspect. 

Of the six injured, five were shot and one was injured while trying to flee. Authorities recovered three guns – one found on the suspect, one in a nearby car and one in a student hall.

Police believe the gunman acted alone, but their motive is unclear, Reuters reported. The suspect has been identified as the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy. CNN identified the suspect as Phoenix Ikner, 20, who remains hospitalized “with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.” Ikner is believed to be a student at FSU in the state capital of Tallahassee.

At the time of the shooting, there were approximately 42,000 students on campus.

A student who was on campus and saw the suspect said it appeared the suspect was not aiming at anyone and just opened fire .

“This killer must and will be brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said. He also expressed condolences to the victims of the incident and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

US President Donald Trump said it was a “terrible and shameful” incident.

Mass shootings at American schools have become a recurring tragedy in recent years. This was the second shooting on the FSU campus in 11 years. In 2014, a graduate student opened fire at the school’s main library, wounding two students and a staff member as hundreds of people were studying for exams.

In 2023, there were two mass shootings at universities, one at Michigan State University that left three students dead and at least five others injured. The other, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, left three faculty members dead before one suspect died in a shootout with police.