School Shootings and Armed Attacks

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    FSU Shooting Suspect Was Shaped by Guns, Extreme Views and Chaotic Childhood

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    His biological mother said in an interview on Friday that she was bewildered by the attack, and had been against the presence of firearms in her son’s life.The 20-year-old student accused of killing two people and wounding six others at Florida State University had expressed extremist political views that made classmates uncomfortable, talked about his interest in guns and experienced years of family tumult that culminated in his changing his name in high school.The day after the shooting terrorized Florida State students, forcing them to flee or hide from gunfire at the university’s campus in Tallahassee, interviews and extensive court records offered an early portrait of the suspect, though law enforcement officials remained silent on what might have motivated the attack.By the time the suspect, Phoenix Ikner, was 6 years old, court records showed that he had to repeat kindergarten. His parents fought bitterly over every aspect of his care while accusing each other of manipulation and abuse. Judges were forced to intervene again and again as the parents traded allegations of domestic violence and stalking. The legal battle consumed nearly his entire childhood and ended only when he became an adult and most of the family court matters became moot.“All I wanted for him was a loving environment,” his biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, said on Friday in a brief interview, in which she was clearly upset. “I was always concerned about his mental health and happiness.”She said she remained bewildered by the shooting and had been against the presence of firearms in her son’s life. “I feel bad for the people at F.S.U.,” she said. “My heart goes out to them. My heart is also with my son.”Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department said in a video statement that the suspect, a Florida State student, appeared to have no direct connection to his victims. The chief added that the suspect would face charges up to and including first-degree murder.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What We Know About the FSU Shooting

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      Two people were killed and six others were injured when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire near the student union building, the police said.Two people died and six others were injured at Florida State University in Tallahassee on Thursday when a 20-year-old gunman armed with a handgun opened fire near the student union, law enforcement officials said.The suspect was shot and wounded by police officers after he disregarded their commands, the authorities said. He was taken to the hospital and identified as a student and the son of a local sheriff’s deputy.Officials were working on “multiple crime scenes” at the Florida State campus and dealing with at least “hundreds” of witnesses, said Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department, the lead investigative agency.Here is what we know.The shooting happened near the student union building.At around 11:50 a.m., gunfire erupted near the student union building at Florida State, a public university with an enrollment of more than 43,000, eight days before the last day of classes for the spring semester. The gunman used a handgun, law enforcement officials said during an afternoon news conference.Officers from the university’s Police Department responded. When the gunman did not comply with their commands, they shot and wounded him. He was taken into custody and to the hospital, where he invoked his right to remain silent, Chief Revell said.The chief said the suspect was also armed with a shotgun but added that it was unclear whether he had used it in the attack. The police believe that he acted alone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What We Know About the Gunman in the Florida State Shooting

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      The gunman accused of killing at least two people and injuring six others on Thursday in a shooting at Florida State University is a current student at the school and his mother is a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, officials said.The shooter was identified by the police as Phoenix Ikner, 20. Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee, Fla., Police Department said the man accused used his mother’s personal handgun in the shooting.The authorities said the attacker appeared to have been acting alone. He was in the hospital on Thursday, after being shot and wounded by responding officers for failing to obey their commands.Few details about the gunman emerged in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Calls to his family and friends on Thursday mostly went unanswered.The man accused of the shooting graduated in 2022 from Lincoln High School, a public school in Tallahassee. He was a member of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office Youth Advisory Council in 2021-2022.According to the sheriff’s office website, the program is an opportunity for members to help address issues facing young people in their communities. Eligible students must be a rising sophomore, junior or senior at a high school in Leon County, have limited unexcused absences and a minimum grade point average of 2.0.Jacob West, 18, was part of the same youth advisory council with the suspect. Mr. West said he was shocked to hear the suspect’s name on the news and double-checked his phone to confirm it was the same person. He described the man accused as always “in good spirits,” helpful and always proposing “really good ideas to help Leon County.”“To hear what had happened was absolutely just heartbreaking,” said Mr. West.When they were in the youth advisory council together, the suspect was interested in car-racing video games and Minecraft, and he was passionate about vehicles, Mr. West said. The two would talk about the program, as well as pickup trucks and school, Mr. West said.“He never spoke about guns or anything,” Mr. West said.The suspect had told Mr. West that he was considering a career in law enforcement, but toward the end of their time with the youth advisory council, he said his interest in the profession had waned, Mr. West recalled. Mr. West said he left the program early, and that the two texted briefly afterward but had not been in touch since.Susan C. Beachy More

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      4 Injured in Dallas School Shooting, Authorities Say

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      Three students were wounded by gunfire and a fourth also was injured when gunfire erupted at Wilmer-Hutchins High School on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.Three students were wounded in a shooting on Tuesday at a Dallas high school where, almost exactly a year ago, a student was shot in the leg by a classmate, the authorities said.A fourth student suffered a “musculoskeletal injury” to his lower body during the shooting on Tuesday, said Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue, who said that all four victims were male. Three of the victims were between the ages of 15 and 18, while the fourth student’s age was not immediately known.The authorities said that they were searching for a suspect, whose identity was known to investigators.The injuries ranged in severity, some of them serious, according to emergency medical workers, who responded around 1:10 p.m. local time to Wilmer-Hutchins High School, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Dallas.The gunfire erupted inside the school, which is part of the Dallas Independent School District, sending it into a lockdown and drawing a large number of officers from several law enforcement agencies to the campus.“Today, as we all know, the unthinkable has happened,” Stephanie S. Elizalde, the school district’s superintendent, said during a news conference. “And quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar, and it should not be familiar.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      An Excruciating Wait for Abundant Life Christian School Families After Shooting

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      Inside Abundant Life Christian School, a chilling message came over the intercom late Monday morning: “Lockdown. This is not a drill.”Teachers herded students out of view, a sixth-grader recalled. Then there was banging, and screaming. “Everybody started freaking out,” said the student, Breken Ives.The sirens came minutes later.“Police car after police car,” said John Diaz de Leon, a retiree in his 60s who lives near the school in Madison, Wis., and who soon headed outside to see what was bringing so many squad cars to usually quiet Buckeye Road.It would be hours before anyone knew any of the details that the police disclosed in a series of news conferences — including that the shooter was a student at the small private school, and that a teacher and a fellow student had been killed and six others injured.Mr. Diaz de Leon had tuned into a police scanner and heard the words “triage” and “D.O.A.” — dead on arrival. Outside the school, he watched as two police officers with long guns drawn approached the school building, leading a police dog. Soon, groups of students began running out, some coatless and holding hands.All around Madison, parents began to rush toward the school. One father, Mike Brube, was blocks away at work, he said, when he saw the police cruisers screaming by, sirens blaring.He drove straight to the school where his seventh-grader, Angel, had been enrolled throughout childhood. “The school is Christian, and it’s like a family place,” Mr. Brube said.Viktoriya Gonzales was among the parents who waited anxiously near the school for hours to be reunited with their children. Some of the students were held back to talk with police officers as the authorities began to investigate.Ms. Gonzales had heard from other students that her son, 12, was safe but “severely traumatized, because he was right by the shooter.”“That’s all I know,” she said. More

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      Man Arrested in Shooting That Killed One at Tuskegee University

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      The shooting, which wounded 12 people, happened early on Sunday as crowds gathered at the historically Black school to celebrate the final day of its 100th homecoming week.A 25-year-old man was charged in connection with a shooting on the campus of Tuskegee University in Alabama early Sunday morning that left one person dead and a dozen others wounded as crowds gathered for the school’s homecoming celebration, the authorities said.The man, Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, was arrested on Sunday and charged under federal law with possessing a machine gun, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said on Facebook.Officers found Mr. Myrick leaving the scene of the shooting with a handgun equipped with a machine gun conversion device, the agency said. It was not immediately clear what led to the shooting, which took place about 1:40 a.m. on the campus.The identity of the person who was killed, 18, was not released. The victim was not a student at the university, the university said in a statement.“The parents of this individual have been notified,” the university said. “Several others, including Tuskegee University students, were injured.”Twelve people were wounded in the shooting and taken to hospitals, the authorities said. Their conditions were not immediately clear on Sunday. Four other people were also hurt.The shooting took place as crowds gathered at the historically Black liberal arts university, which has 3,000 students, to celebrate the last day of its 100th homecoming week, which began on Nov. 3.In a video posted on social media, a young woman could be heard shouting “Get down! Get down!” as she and others ducked behind a car during the gunfire.The university is in the city of Tuskegee, which has a population of about 8,700 residents and is about 40 miles east of the state capital of Montgomery, Ala.The homecoming celebration included a parade, concerts and a football game between Tuskegee and Miles College on Saturday.“We extend our deepest condolences to those impacted and pray for healing and justice,” Miles College said in a statement on Sunday. “Miles College stands with you in this difficult time.”Tuskegee University said that it had canceled Monday’s classes. More

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      As School Threats Proliferate, More Than 700 Students Are

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      Earlier this month, a detective knocked on Shavon Harvey’s door, in suburban Ohio, to ask about her son. The son had sent a Snapchat message from her phone to his friends, saying there would be shootings at several schools nearby.She rushed to the police station, where her son was already in custody, but the police did not release him. He was charged with inducing panic, a second-degree felony, and officials kept him in detention for 10 nights.He is 10.Ms. Harvey’s son is far from the only child arrested this month after similar behavior. And he’s not even the youngest.In the three weeks since two teachers and two students were killed at Apalachee High School in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history, more than 700 children and teenagers, including at least one fourth grader, have been arrested and accused of making violent threats against schools in at least 45 states, according to a New York Times review of news reports, law enforcement statements and court records. Almost 10 percent were 12 or younger.Shavon Harvey said her son had told his fifth-grade friends on Snapchat that there would be a shooting in his district. The police held him in custody for over a week.Maddie McGarvey for The New York TimesThe arrests come as the police and schools confront an onslaught of threats of violence, gunfire and bombings. The reports have terrified students and their parents, caused attendance to plunge and forced the temporary closure of dozens of campuses. Some schools have canceled homecoming parades, middle school dances and Friday night football games.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Border Agents Made Decision to Confront Gunman in Uvalde, Report Finds

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      A report by the federal border agency on the school shooting in 2022 found that its agents lacked adequate training and authority to respond to active shooter situations.Amid two years of painful wrangling over the delayed police response to the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the role of the federal agents who finally breached the classrooms and killed the gunman has largely avoided scrutiny.The agents, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were seen as having saved the day by responding to the school and stepping in after a 77-minute delay.But a 203-page report released on Wednesday by the agency complicated that simple narrative, finding that the border agents had been just as confused and delayed as dozens of other state and local law enforcement agents inside the school by the chaotic and mostly leaderless response.The report, from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, also offered the most detailed account yet of the tense and violent moments when federal agents finally entered the classrooms and the gunman burst from a closet and began firing at them.And despite the agents’ central role in confronting and killing the gunman, the report raised questions about whether the dozens who responded had the legal authority to do so. The agents were insufficiently trained in responding to active shooter situations, the report found.Its recommendations included that the agency take steps to better train its officers in active shooter responses, particularly to those in which breaching a door may be necessary, and to seek to clarify the law around how the agency interacts with state and local law enforcement during such events.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Georgia Shooting, a Grief-Stricken City Seeks Solace, and Answers

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      At candlelight vigils and in Sunday church services, at fund-raisers for funerals and in quiet moments at home, another city began wrestling with a grief that has been inflicted on numerous American communities before it, a profound sorrow swirled with anger and confusion caused by a deadly mass shooting.And now, those emotions in Winder, Ga., were streaked with budding doubts there had been missed opportunities to intervene before a gunman killed two students and two teachers last week at Apalachee High School.Some in the community — including family members of victims, and students and parents at the school — expressed increased skepticism on Sunday about whether indications that the 14-year-old suspect was a threat had been adequately heeded by the teenager’s family, school officials and law enforcement officials.The concern grew after reports emerged of the suspect’s mother calling the school roughly a half-hour before the authorities responded to the shooting, apparently to warn them.“We believe it was preventable — 100 percent,” Lisette Angulo, the older sister of Christian Angulo, a 14-year-old boy who was killed, said of her and her family’s perspective in a message sent to The New York Times. “They knew of the situation beforehand,” she said, “and didn’t take proper action to prevent this tragedy from happening.”Ms. Angulo praised the officers and emergency workers who responded to the shooting on Wednesday morning, namely the school resource officers to whom the suspect surrendered. They had acted “efficiently and appropriately,” she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More