Students and staff at Florida State University came together in a peaceful vigil and serene outdoor service on Holy Saturday to exalt their strong sense of community after a shooting sent shockwaves across the campus of nearly 45,000 students.
Saturday’s vigil included live acoustic Christian music performances from students and sermons from religious leaders. It was also a moment to remember the two men killed during Thursday’s shooting, fewer than 72 hours before.
Five people were wounded in the attack, and two people were killed — Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 45. The shooter was also wounded.
According to the Tallahassee Medical HealthCare hospital, one victim went home Friday, and five other people wounded in the shooting — including the alleged shooter — are still in the hospital. Hospital staff said all of the patients are now listed in “good” condition. The hospital would not share any further details.
But it wasn’t just the people who were shot who were scarred from the attack.
Thursday’s shooting rampage sent hundreds of students running for their lives. Many students who returned to collect the items they left behind in the chaos expressed a range of emotions — anger, frustration, and anguish — saying they are traumatized by the surreal experience.
Many others on campus on Saturday were in tears as they walked by a growing memorial near the student union.
Flowers, notes, candles, and other items were placed neatly in two rows down a sidewalk among the oak trees and Spanish moss, a defining beauty mark on FSU’s picturesque campus.
For those at Saturday’s vigil, it was a soothing opportunity for collective healing. The crowd sang along together, prayed together, and reflected together.
“It’s overwhelming”
FSU President Richard McCullough said the university is setting up a resource center for the victims of Thursday’s mass shooting.
“It was pretty terrifying,” McCullough said. “FSU police were the ones that took care of the shooter, and we’re so proud of what they did because it could have been so much worse.”
McCullough said the university is just two weeks away from graduation.
“It’s overwhelming because I feel responsibility to keep everybody safe as part of my job,” McCullough told CBS News in an interview Saturday morning. “It’s tough for me, obviously, very tough with the students … It’s something you worry about all the time.”
Florida State University President Richard McCullough looks to community members, students and faculty gathered for a vigil honoring the victims of the Florida State University shooting. / Getty Images
He said the school is evaluating setting up potential financial assistance for those wounded, but he says the details are still being discussed, and nothing has been finalized.
“I had a number of presidents and chancellor’s colleagues from other universities reach out and say, ‘Hey, Rick, we lived through this, we’ve already been through this, you know, Virginia tech and Virginia and UNC, you know, reach out if you need, if you need help,’ and it’s just, it’s awful that this has become so commonplace,” he said.
McCullough said the school had just facilitated an active shooter training event just a few weeks before the attack. He says new students also receive active shooter training as part of their orientation.
“It’s become part of what you have to prepare for at the university,” McCullough said. “Just like anything that happens to you, you certainly remember it, but we’re strong, we’ll work through it.”
Investigation into shooting continues
Police say the accused gunman, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, sustained “significant” injuries during a shootout with officers and will likely be in the hospital for some time before he can be criminally charged.
Chief Lawrence Revell with Tallahassee Police said, at this point, it does not appear that there was any connection between the alleged shooter and the victims.
Police say the suspect used a handgun that belonged to his stepmom, who is a local county sheriff’s deputy for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. She is now on personal leave. Investigators said the suspect had participated in several training programs with the sheriff’s office.
“Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene,” said Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil.
Investigators are still working to determine a motive for the attack.
Court documents from 2015 show Ikner’s father said his son had “special needs” and was taking medication for “health and mental issues.”
A neighbor of the home where Ikner lived with his stepmom and father says they “took great care of him.”
Another neighbor who rode the bus with Ikner every day to middle and high school remembers him being very quiet.
“He was just very odd,” neighbor Laney Montgomery recalls. “He was very quiet. He didn’t really have much of a presence around.”
As for the students wounded on Thursday, their focus is on healing.
Graduate student Madison Askins was shot in the back after she tripped and fell while trying to run away from the gunman during Thursday’s attack.
Asked what her message would be to the alleged person who shot her, Askins said: “He doesn’t deserve any more of my time. He’s already taken what he can, and at this point, in my opinion, he deserves nothing else.”
Kati WeisKati Weis is a Murrow Award-winning reporter for CBS News based in New Orleans, covering the Southeast. She previously worked as an investigative reporter at CBS News Colorado in their Denver newsroom.
