Florida campus shooting //
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Authorities say a student accused of opening fire on the Florida State University campus, which left two people dead and six injured, is the stepson of a police officer.
Officials say the alleged gunman, identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Eichner, had the service weapon of Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Eichner.
The suspect opened fire near the Tallahassee Student Union building during lunchtime on Thursday. The motive is still unclear.
Campus police said the victims were not students, but their identities were not released. The suspect was taken into custody by police and taken to the hospital.
Police said a shotgun was also found at the scene.
Sheriff Walt McNeil said the suspect was a “longtime member” of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council and had been involved in several training programs.
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“So it’s not surprising that he had access to guns,” he said.
At a news conference Thursday, Phoenix Eichner was identified as Jessica Eichner's son. Still, Florida court records show the suspect has a different biological mother and was raised by his father and stepmother.
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Sheriff McNeil said the suspect is the stepson of a veteran Leon County police officer, a model employee. He said school resource officer Jessica Eichner left the gun behind after the force upgraded its weapons.
The university said police responded to a call about an active shooter at around noon local time. An alert was issued warning students and others on campus to "take shelter and await further instructions."
"One of my classmates got an alert on his phone and announced it to the rest of the class," student Ava Arenado told CBS News Miami.
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Another student, Blake Leonard, told CBS that he initially heard about 12 gunshots. "At first I thought it was construction, until I looked back and saw people from the union running towards me, and then I heard 12-15 more gunshots, so I started running from there," he said.
The FSU student newspaper quoted the suspect as making comments at a rally on campus, where he spoke out against President Donald Trump’s policies and Israel’s war on Gaza, among other things.
FSUNews.com reported that Mr. Eichner, who is registered to vote as a Republican, made the following comment about the anti-Trump protesters: “These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually for a good reason.”
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President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident before meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House, when he was asked if he wanted to change gun laws in light of the shooting.
He said he is a “big supporter” of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects gun rights. “I’ve been there since the beginning,” he said. "I supported it. These things are terrible. We'll have more to say about this later."
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Student used stepmum's gun in Florida campus shooting, police say < Visit >
He called the shooting "a shameful, horrific event." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, "Our prayers are with our FSU family, and the state's law enforcement agencies are actively responding."
This is not the first shooting at FSU. In 2015, a graduate of the school shot and wounded three people in the library and was later killed by police.
The father of a girl killed in the 2018 massacre at Parkland High School in Florida said that some of her classmates, who were lucky enough to survive, were on the FSU campus during Thursday's attack.
Gun control advocate Fred Gutenberg wrote in X: "Incredibly, some of them were part of their second school shooting and some were in the student union today."
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