Employee Among Victims in FSU shooting

Tallahassee, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) -- Florida State University officials said a long-time dining services employee was among the victims of Thursday’s shooting that left two dead and six injured. 

Also killed was Tiru Chabba, an executive for one of the campus’ vendors. Both men were working at the time of the shooting.

Morales was working in the university’s dining services department. Chabba, of Greenville, S.C., was the regional vice president of Aramark Collegiate Hospitality. Officials have not released the names of the six people injured in the shooting but said those injured included students. All were sent to a local hospital and are expected to recover, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare officials said.

Police identified the suspect as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, the stepson of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy. Ikner was a student at the university, police said, and was injured when officers shot him to neutralize the threat. Officials said he suffered “significant” injuries and will be in the hospital for quite some time recovering.

“Once he is released from that facility, he’ll be taken to a local detention facility, where he will face the charges up to and including first-degree murder,” Tallahassee Police Chief Thomas Lawrence Revell said. He also said there didn’t appear to be any connection between Ikner and the people he shot.

Authorities said Ikner waited in an FSU parking garage for nearly an hour before his shooting rampage started. After parking at 11 a.m., he moved in and out of his vehicle and waited. At 11:51 a.m., he exited the parking lot on foot and moved toward the school’s student union. About five minutes after leaving the parking lot, he fired his first shot then walked in and out of buildings and green spaces firing a handgun.

By 11:58 a.m., police began to receive multiple calls of an active shooter on campus and nearby police officers responded to the campus. Within two minutes, the incident was over and Ikner had been shot by officers and taken into custody.

At the time, Morales was attending a meeting with other university employees.

Since the shooting, the school has seen memorials of candles and flowers appear across campus, and a vigil was held at 5 p.m. Friday on the campus.

“There is no manual on how we feel when something like this happens. I'm angry, you're angry…. I'm completely numb. Some of you are scared. I understand that,” Richard McCullough, FSU president, said. “All those feelings are normal. There’s no right response to tragedy. But I want to be clear — you’re not alone.”

Classes on the Tallahassee campus were canceled Friday, and all athletic events were canceled through April 20, officials said.

Chabba’s family has since hired Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm to represent them. In a news release, Sellers and Jim Bannister said they were hired to “ensure that all those who bear responsibility for this senseless act of violence are held to account.”

The lawyers also asked the public to keep the family in their thoughts and prayers “as we fight to ensure they see justice that honors the memories of Mr. Chabba and all the victims of Thursday’s shooting.”

Ikner is the stepson of Jessica Ikner, a school resource deputy with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and was posted at Raa Middle School. Officials said she had previously brought Ikner to a firing range to practice shooting. Officials with the police department said the shooting practice was not done in any official capacity and was done to make sure Ikner "knew the proper handling of a weapon for safety purposes."

Jessica Ikner was beloved at the middle school, officials said, and was law enforcement officer of the year in 2023 for the sheriff’s office. Since the shooting, she has requested personal leave, which was granted, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said. Once she returns to active duty, she will be reassigned from the school to the property crimes division, officials said, due to the “sensitivity of the matter and to make sure she is properly acclimated under the circumstances.”

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