'I just need to play dead': FSU shooting victim recounts horrific ordeal as campus mourns
The two men killed in the mass shooting at Florida State University were identified as beloved members of their communities by family and friends.
Survivors and community members at Florida State University came together to grieve and support each other at a vigil that drew thousands after two people were killed and more were injured in an April 17 campus shooting.
The shooting, believed to be carried out by a student, left the Tallahassee campus reeling.
"We're family. Hard moments like these ... we show up for one another," University President Richard McCullough said at the vigil on the evening of April 18, choking back tears. "We need to keep doing that over the next weeks. Reach out, listen, be kind, be there."
The two men killed were identified by family members and close friends as dining vendor executive Tiru Chabba and dining services employee Robert Morales.
Six people, including students, were injured in the attack and sent to a local hospital. They are all expected to fully recover, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare officials said.
The first publicly identified victim among the injured, Madison Askins, told CBS in an interview from her hospital bed at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare that she did everything she could to look like she was dead.
"The minute I got shot, I remember my parents telling me I just need to play dead," Askins said. "I didn't want him to shoot me again, God forbid it."
The shooting began close to noon on April 17. Police said the suspect, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, opened fire near the student union and was injured by responding campus officers and apprehended within about five minutes. Those few minutes sent students scrambling for cover and barricading themselves around campus until authorities found them.
Falling then breathing, waiting for the gunman to move on
Askins, who's studying urban and regional planning at FSU, told NBC she was going to lunch with a friend at the student union when the gunfire erupted. She tripped and fell as she tried to run. The gunman shot her in the buttocks.
She said she released all the muscles in her body, closed her eyes and held her breath as she listened to Ikner talk to himself while he reloaded his gun. He moved on to others. When first responders reached Askins, they started tending to her wound and she opened her eyes for the first time. Throughout the ordeal, she told NBC, she had fought the urge to call her parents.
"I definitely thought it was the end," she said. "When I started to spiral a little bit, I did reach that point where I really want to tell my family I love them."
At the campus vigil after the shooting, McCullough offered words of understanding.
“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,” McCullough said at the vigil. “All those feelings are normal. There’s no right response to tragedy. But I want to be clear — you’re not alone.”
Who were the victims?
Chabba, 45, was an executive for campus dining vendor Aramark. The Greenville, South Carolina, man is survived by his wife and two children, according to an attorney hired by his family. He was on campus at FSU that day for work.
"It’s inconceivable," Larry Lee, who previously worked with Chabba at Aramark, told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, part of the Paste BN Network. "Oh, God. I’m just telling you, man, this was a good dude. A good, good guy."
Lee said Chabba loved his work and was a "brilliant businessman" — but that he was equally devoted to his family.
Morales was a beloved high school football coach and worked in dining services at FSU. The Miami native was identified in a post on X by his brother. "Today we lost my younger Brother, He was one of the victims killed at FSU. He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful Wife and Daughter. I’m glad you were in my Life," the post said.
Morales worked as a special teams coach for Leon High School's football program and was also a partner at local favorite Gordos Cuban Cuisine.
"He was a trusted coach, a respected colleague, and a cherished friend to many" the school's athletic department said in a statement. "The loss of Coach Morales is felt deeply by all of us at Leon High School, especially during this difficult and tragic time."
Athletic Director Riley Bell coached with Morales and described him as a having a "big heart." He said Morales spent about six to eight years with the program and was a "valuable" member of the team, he told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the Paste BN Network.
"A great guy. Good heart, family man," Bell said. "Just full of energy and very happy."
FSU students remain on campus in solidarity: 'Where we belong'
Campus should have been empty the day after the shooting, but students came to get the backpacks, water bottles and cell phones they had dropped or abandoned when they either ran to take shelter or were evacuated by law enforcement.
Hundreds of students stayed after they got their things. Others decided to go for their daily run on campus or buy a bouquet of flowers at the Publix in CollegeTown.
Some students said they chose to stay in Tallahassee instead of going home for the Easter holiday weekend. They said they wanted to be with their friends and FSU family, those who experienced the same trauma and tragedy who would understand what they went through.
For students like Rachel Cannella, even though Thursday's mass shooting left her scared, FSU is her home. Under the hot Florida sun, a little over 24 hours after the first shots rang out on campus, Cannella was at the Legacy Walk memorial with her friends.
"We sat in those classrooms, this is where we walk every day to class, you can't let someone take that away from us," Cannella said. "I think we all share in knowing that this is where we belong, and this is our home, and we're not going to back down."
-Ana Goñi-Lessan, Paste BN NETWORK - Florida
New details about shooting suspect emerge
Ikner is the stepson of a local sheriff's deputy and investigators believe he used the deputy's former service weapon in the shooting. He had spent years participating in youth programs within the department.
Classmates and others who knew Ikner said he had a history of espousing extremist views. His internet history was equally troubling, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which analyzed screenshots of his gaming accounts that contained Nazi and Hitler references.
“It’s just concerning,” said Carla Hill, a senior director of investigative research at the anti-hate group’s center on extremism. “What we’re seeing – if in fact this individual has extremist views and it seems at the very least he was exposed to extremism – is the continued crossover between extremism and the glorification of violence that eventually leads to violence.”
Ikner was injured in the response to the shooting and remains hospitalized.
“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 Department Chief Lawrence Revell said.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, Paste BN; Jeff Burlew and Arianna Otero, Tallahassee Democrat; Baker Maultsby, Spartanburg Herald-Journal