Flowers places near a sign for FSU’s student union building on April 17, 2025. Photo:

DON HAYES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

• Florida State University students are sharing their stories from the Thursday, April 17 mass shooting that police say left two people dead and six injured
• Speaking with Good Morning America, one FSU student said he and others used chewed gum to stick paper to the windows of a room
• The shooting suspect has since been identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner

Florida State University students are speaking out following a mass shooting that left two people dead and six injured.

Multiple members of the FSU community spoke with Good Morning America ahead of a Friday, April 18 airing, revealing the community’s response to the shooting that police say took place near the school’s student union around 11:50 a.m. local time, according to reporting by NBC News.

On Thursday, April 17, FSU sent out an alert about an active shooter within minutes, before FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower confirmed to reporters that the suspect was “apprehended immediately.” Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil has since identified the suspect as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, the son of a deputy who has been with the department for 18 years.

Now, students are sharing their stories. Junior McKenzie Heeter — who also spoke with both NBC and CNN — revealed on GMA that she was “feet away from the suspect.”

“I noticed he was waving around a bigger rifle,” Heeter told GMA. “That’s when he shot the rifle, and I was just confused. Like, ‘Was that really just a shot?’ And that’s when I notice him go in his car and pull out the handgun and then shoot that woman.”

Heeter told CNN that she left the student union with her food before noticing “a really nice orange Hummer” parked on the road. She said that as she was leaving, she “looked back” and saw the shooter “waving around” the gun, which she later clarified was a shotgun. As she explained, the man then grabbed a handgun out of his vehicle, “turned toward the union” and shot a woman “in purple scrubs in her back.”

Students hold a vigil near the FSU shooting scene on April 17, 2025. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty

“I just started running,” the student said. “I ran a mile all the way to my apartment. But I kept hearing shots firing. Pretty much, the cops were there before I made it home. I heard all the sirens. But it was a good 20 seconds after I was running — it was just shot after shot after shot.”

Fellow student Jeffrey LaFary told GMA that he similarly heard multiple gunshots while on campus before he and others took action.

“The teacher was asking if any of us had tape to tape up some paper [over the windows],” LaFary said. “And no one had tape and so some of us, we just got out gum and started chewing so we could stick some paper to the windows.”

Joshua Sirmans also recalled the moments surrounding the shooting, telling GMA that “after like 20 minutes, they told us put our hands up and we come out.” As Sirmans told Newsweek, an alarm went off as he was doing work.

“At first, I thought it was just a fire alarm. Sounds a little different though. And I’m just hearing ‘active shooter.’ And you kind of just like panic just a little bit in the moment, just like, ‘D—, is that real?’ Like, it takes a little bit to process and you get to your safe area,” Sirmans recalled. “I went to a little cubby space and then you just [take] out your phone, look at the news and like start to process it. Like, d—, some people just got shot a couple feet away from me.”

Sirmans shared that “armed forces” were directing students out of the library, adding that he “never really expected to be in a situation like this.”

Police investigate the scene of the shooting at FSU on April 17, 2025. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty

According to both GMA and The New York Times, some students on campus Thursday also endured the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla. Per the Times, FSU law student Joshua Gallagher is a Parkland alum and wrote on social media that he was in the FSU Law Library during the recent shooting.

“After living through the MSD shooting in 2018, I never thought it would hit close to home again,” he wrote on X. “Then I’m in the FSU Law Library and hear on alarm: active shooter on campus. No matter your politics, we need to meet—and something has to change. Prayers to the victims and families.”

Authorities confirmed on Thursday that the two deceased victims in the shooting were not FSU students, as PEOPLE previously reported, and that the suspect, Ikner, was injured when he was shot by law enforcement. The sheriff said that Ikner — who was “embedded” in the law enforcement community and was a member of the sheriff’s office’s youth council — “had access” to one of his mother’s weapons, which “was found at the scene.”

Law enforcement said it believes Ikner is a student at FSU. Per CNN, the suspect was found with a handgun while a shotgun was discovered in the student union building and another weapon in the suspect’s car. Classes have been cancelled for the remainder of the week.