No bond given for FSU shooting suspect, Phoenix Ikner, during court appearance on murder and other charges

By Ryan Young and, Devon M. Sayers, CNN

(CNN) — A Florida State University student accused of killing two people and injuring six others on campus has been released from the hospital and appeared in court Tuesday morning to face murder charges.

Phoenix Ikner, 20, was a political science major at the school and the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy.

Ikner has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, according to court records.

Ikner appeared in Judge Monique Richardson’s court via video link from his jail.

He will be held on no bond, and cannot contact his victims or witnesses of the shooting, Richardson said.

Attorneys for the family of Tiru Chabba, a 45-year-old father of two killed during the shooting, said today was an “incredibly difficult” day for the family.

“Our hope is that, through the thorough and transparent investigation and prosecution of the events surrounding last month’s shooting, today’s court appearance will mark the first steps toward closure for a family that suffered so much,” a release said.

CNN has reached out to the public defender’s office, which was appointed to represent him.

“We are grateful for the work of our detectives, officers, medical personnel and partner agencies who helped bring us to this point,” Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said in a news release.

The April 17 shooting – just weeks before the end of the semester – took place near the student union. Two men – a university dining coordinator and an employee of a campus vendor – were killed.

During the attack, Ikner pointed a shotgun toward a person, “but it appeared to have a malfunction or was not loaded, which caused the shotgun not to fire,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

Ikner also chased down at least one of his victims before shooting her, according to the court filing.

Campus police shot Ikner on the campus after he “did not comply with commands,” authorities said. They did not detail his specific injuries.

Authorities have not publicly identified a possible motive, though there did not appear to be any connections between the suspect and any of the victims.

Ikner is no longer enrolled at FSU, Amy Farnum-Patronis, a spokesperson for the university, told CNN Tuesday.

Since the shooting, Ikner’s previous classmates from his time at Tallahassee State College have said his political beliefs were extreme and they were made uncomfortable with his “concerning rhetoric” – including describing civil rights icon Rosa Parks as being “in the wrong,” defending the use of Nazi symbols, and disparaging pro-Palestinian and Black Lives Matter protesters, CNN previously reported. It’s not clear if politics was a factor in the shooting.

Ikner spent time training with law enforcement and serving on a sheriff’s advisory council in the years before his attack, authorities have said

Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters at a news conference after the shooting that the suspect was “steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family and engaged in a number of training programs that we have, so it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.”

Jessica Ikner, Phoenix’s mother, has served at the sheriff’s department for more than 18 years, McNeil said, adding “her service to this community has been exceptional.” She did not respond to a request for comment after the shooting. The deputy has since taken personal leave from the department.

Ikner was moved from the Leon County jail to another facility as a “standard protocol” due to his relationship to Jessica Ikner, the sheriff’s department said in a Monday Facebook post.

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