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A 20-year-old Florida State University student who authorities say opened fire on the school’s Tallahassee campus Thursday, leaving two people dead and six others injured, was at the center of a custody battle between his birth parents, CBS News has learned.
Students who knew him are also beginning to share more information about his background.
Years-long custody battles
CBS News obtained court records showing a years-long custody battle between the birth parents of suspect Phoenix Ikner, who was shot by police and taken to a hospital following Thursday’s mass shooting.
The custody disputes between birth parents Anne-Mari Eriksen and Christopher Ikner began in 2007 and lasted through 2023. Public records show Christopher Ikner married Jessica Ikner, the suspect’s stepmother, in 2010. Two former schoolmates of the suspect told CBS News he used to go by Christian Eriksen.
Records show Anne-Mari Erikson filed a lawsuit in 2015 against Christopher Ikner, Jessica Ikner, and other family members, alleging slander and libel, according to court records. The case was dismissed in 2016.
In 2016, Anne-Mari Eriksen was found guilty of removing her child from the state and failing to return him, according to court records. The incident occurred in 2015, when Anne-Mari Eriksen told Christopher Ikner that she was taking their then 10-year-old son to South Florida for spring break. Instead, she left the country with him and traveled to Norway, a violation of their custody agreement.
At the time, Christopher Ikner told authorities their son had “developmental delays” and “special needs,” and was taking medication for “severe health and mental issues,” including ADHD and a growth hormone disorder. He said Anne-Mari Eriksen did not respond to his questions about their return from Norway in repeated emails and phone calls over several weeks, and told police that he believed she “had no intention of returning” to Florida.
Christopher Ikner filed a child custody order violation against Anne-Mari Eriksen, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. Erikson pleaded no contest to charges of removing the child from the state and failing to remove him. Court records show she received a jail sentence and was ordered to have no contact with her son, his father, and his wife, except as allowed via family court.
Months after the spring break incident, Anne-Mari Eriksen filed a civil lawsuit against Christopher Ikner, Jessica Ikner, and his parents, alleging defamation of character and emotional harm.
“The emotional and psychological harm done to the minor child will be evident for years, and will require counseling, and given the child being the age of 11, will have memory impacted by the behaviors of all the defendants for the false claims done on his mother, and for the parental alienation of the close relationship of the minor child,” she alleged in the complaint.
In 2016, a Leon County judge dismissed the complaint.
Suspect obtained weapon from stepmom
Authorities told reporters the weapon used in Thursday’s shooting was a former service weapon belonging to the suspect’s stepmother, Jessica Ikner, a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy, which she now owned as a personal handgun.
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters that Jessica Ikner has worked at the sheriff’s office for 18 years. She worked as a school resource deputy, according to the LCSO website.
She was seen in a social media post smiling and receiving an award from McNeil.
Students describe interactions with suspect
Florida State University student Reid Seybold, who knew the mass shooting suspect from a political club at a former college, told CBS News that the alleged gunman was asked to leave the group after espousing white supremacist rhetoric that “made enough people uncomfortable.” CBS News has not independently verified these claims. Seybold said the suspect seemed “fairly normal” when he saw him around campus afterward and said he won’t speculate on the motive behind Thursday’s deadly shooting.
Jennifer Jaskolski, 20, was in the same grade as the suspect at Swift Creek Middle School and Lincoln High School. She told CBS News the two of them rode the school bus together in 6th and 7th grade, before he switched to a special education transportation option in 8th grade.
He was in a combination of regular and special education classes, according to Jaskolski.
Jaskolski remembers Jessica Ikner picking him up from school while wearing her sheriff’s deputy uniform.
Jaskolski’s friend, Gemma Garcia, attended middle school with the suspect.
Garcia, 19, was in the grade below the suspect at Swift Creek Middle School and shared a yearbook photo of him from 2018 in which the name under his photo reads “Christian Eriksen.”
Garcia told CBS News she is starting at FSU next semester and saw the emergency response scene near campus Thursday.
