‘Something has to change’: Parkland school massacre survivors were at FSU during fatal shooting

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Joshua Gallagher, a survivor of the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, was at Florida State University during the fatal shooting on Thursday.

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Shortly before 1:50 p.m., Gallagher reported on X that he was at the FSU Law Library in Tallahassee when he heard an alarm and learned that there was an “active shooter” on campus.

6 p.m. report:

“No matter your politics, we need to meet —and something has to change," Gallagher wrote. “Prayers to the victims and families.”

Witnesses at the FSU Student Union building along West Tennessee Street reported hearing the gunshots before armed police officers responded. As of 4:40 p.m., there were two dead and seven injured, including the gunman who was hospitalized, police said.

Lori Alhadeff, who was elected Broward County School Board member as she grieved the death of her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, during the MSD massacre, said her son is an FSU student.

“It’s horrific; it’s painful,” said Alhadeff, the co-founder of Make Our Schools Safe.

Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor, was outraged about the MSD graduates who had to relive their trauma when they experienced their second school shooting at FSU.

“There are kids from my high school ... who were freshmen during the MSD shooting and are now seniors at FSU during this current mass shooting,” Kasky wrote on X. “Welcome to Florida, welcome to America.”

Fred Guttenberg, an activist whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime died during the Parkland shooting, reported that many of her friends went on to become FSU students.

“Incredibly, some of them were just a part of their 2nd school shooting and some were in the student union today,” Guttenberg wrote on X.

Guttenberg blamed the tragedy on the “many people who refuse to do the right things about reducing gun violence.”

Before a suspect was in custody, FSU junior Angel Dejesus told The Tallahassee Democrat that he and others were hiding in a small room in a classroom and he stopped studying when a student who survived the Parkland shooting said, “Man, I never thought this would happen again.“

Detectives identified the gunman as Phoenix Ikner. Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil said Ikner was a member of The Leon County Sheriff’s Office Youth Advisory Council and his stepmother is Deputy Jessica Ikner, who has served for over 18 years.

“Her son had access to one of her weapons and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene,” McNeil said.

FSU Chief Jason Trumbower said the deputy, who served at a public middle school, had previously used the firearm as a service weapon but when the department replaced it, she was allowed to buy it.

“It was her personal handgun,” Trumbower said adding the gunman also had a shotgun.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare reported receiving six victims. The Leon County Medical Examiner’s Office had yet to release information about the two deaths.

The shooting Thursday prompted the cancelation of the “United Against Hate” event at FSU to remember 21-year-old Maura Binkley, a senior at FSU who was killed during a shooting on Nov. 2, 2018, at a yoga studio in Tallahassee.

FSU had a shooting before. In 2014, there was a shooting at the entrance of FSU’s Strozier Library, and police officers shot and killed the gunman later identified as Myron May, 31, an attorney and FSU graduate who injured three victims including a 21-year-old student who was paralyzed as a result of his wounds.

Authorities in Tallahassee asked anyone with information about the case to call 850-891-4987. The FBI asked anyone with videos, photos, or tips to submit a form online on this site.