TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Court records filed in Leon County shed new light on who the suspects in the Florida State University shooting were.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeill said Phoenix Eekner, a suspected gunman, was linked to one of his deputies, Ickner’s stepmother. Ichner was allegedly accessed a personal handgun of her stepmother, which was found at FSU.
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Two people were killed and six others were injured in mass shootings. Ichner was also hospitalized after being shot by police.
According to NBC News, questionable shooter Phoenix Echner originally went under the name Christian Gunnar Eriksen. An FBI official told NBC that the 20-year-old changed his name in 2020 and took his father’s surname.
Court records showed that as a child, Ichner was in the midst of a custody battle in 2015 when his biological mother, Anne Mari Eriksen, took his son abroad against his father’s wishes.
On March 27, 2015, his father, who had already been married to Ichner’s stepmother by this time, had filed a report of his child’s custody order against Eriksen.
The boy’s mother originally told his father he would take his son to South Florida for spring break, according to the affidavit of the probable cause.
Instead, Eriksen fled the country for Norway. According to court documents, Ichner and his mother were double citizens of the United States and Norway.
Court records show that Eriksen had custody, but she was not permitted to take her son out of the state without notice on the 14th.
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“Ichner advised that Christians had developmental delays and special needs that they feared not to look after American doctors without access to them,” the 2015 affidavit said.
According to another affidavit, Ichner had several physical and mental health issues requiring medication, including growth hormone disorders and ADHD.
Eventually, Ichner was returned to her father, and her mother was sentenced to 200 days in prison, two years of community management and two years of probation.
At the time of this report, Ichner remained at Tallahassee Hospital due to injuries. He has not yet been formally charged with FSU shooting.
The motive for the shooting is yet to be known.
