‘All of us…were united in fear and panic.’
By Alex Lieberman
Original Air Date: April 18, 2025
Host: Yesterday, gunshots rang out at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The Student Union is still considered an active crime scene. Two people were killed: Robert Morales, the university’s dining coordinator and an alumnus of the school. The other victim has not been publicly identified. Six were wounded and are expected to recover. Notably, there was another shooting at a Dallas high school earlier this week in which five people were hospitalized. We talked to one FSU witness.
Alex Lieberman: The suspected FSU shooter, Phoenix Ikner, is a 20-year old who was studying at the school and is the stepson of a Leon County deputy. FSU is located in that county. One of the weapons found at the scene belonged to his stepmother, the sheriff’s deputy.
FSU sophomore Alyson Mizanin was teaching a class on campus during the event in the Dunlap Student Success Center, five minutes away from the Student Union.
When the shooting took place at the Student Union, Alyson Mizanin was very close by at the Dunlap Student Success Center.
Alyson Mizanin: I was in the middle of class and had actually went up to go to the bathroom as my other fellow teachers were helping our class as they were giving draft proposals of the final projects for next week. As I walk into the bathroom that’s on our same floor, we start hearing the intercom above us going off. I instantly know something’s wrong, and you start hearing police sirens outside of the building as well.
AL: Mizanin then ran back to the classroom, and the group hid in an office space further down the hallway where they stayed for three hours under lockdown. More people in the same building joined them in the office.
AM: We were very lucky to have that door automatically lock. I know some of my friends were in classrooms where the doors did not automatically lock, so they had to set up barricades of chairs—tying the doors with sweatshirts and such.
Still from a CBS broadcast.
AL: Though the door was locked, the group stayed away from the doors and windows. Mizanin said that students were sharing what they saw on the news and communicating with family and friends.
AM: It was a pretty surreal experience. You had people in there calling loved ones, calling friends, speaking different languages, talking to family members. All of us in that moment were united in this fear and this panic, especially given how close we were to where things were happening.
Still from a CBS broadcast.
AL: After the first hour and a half, students heard that there were others being evacuated by the FSU and Tallahassee police, which was calming for many who hid with Mizanin. Her building was given an all-clear when students and staff could leave. It was not evacuated. There was a wide area around the Student Union off-limits to unauthorized people, and no one was allowed to travel across campus, which left some students waiting with police officers before being able to return to their dorm.
Mizanin plans to attend the vigil held tonight and hopes to interview students there as part of an effort to begin an FSU broadcast. Reflecting on the experience, she believes it is a sign that current gun control laws are not satisfactory.
Still from a CBS broadcast.
AM: I think America has a problem, and if the current onslaught of innocent deaths throughout our country of students, of faculty members, of community members who get caught in attacks such as these—if those don’t say something to legislators about our need for change, then I don’t know what will. A lot of Tallahassee churches and religious centers have been sources of religious and spiritual help during this time, and while I appreciate the existence of those initiatives and I understand their importance, I don’t think thoughts and prayers are gonna get us anywhere. I don’t know how many people unfortunately have to die or be traumatized by events like this in order for something to change.
AL: President Trump referred to the shooting as “terrible” and “a shame.” He added that he has an obligation to protect the second amendment and said “the gun doesn’t do the shooting; the people do.”
The alleged shooter is, according to the New York Post, a white supremacist. Mizanin does not know the shooter but has a friend who was in a class with him.
Friday and Thursday classes were canceled after the event. Mizanin anticipates that returning to school will be difficult.
Alyson Mizanin.
AM: I think this is something that—because it happened so late in the school year, I don’t think any of us will leave this academic year without feeling a sense of concern and worry in every step we take. School, college, is supposed to be a place where you can feel safe—where you can learn—where you shouldn’t have to worry about something like this.
AL: However, she predicts that the shooting will make the school a stronger and more tight-knit community. Mizanin has no opinion on whether the event will affect FSU’s enrollment, but she mentioned that one of her friends is a tour guide for the school and was delivering a tour when the shooting began. This friend then had to spend the lockdown with prospective students and their families.
AM: If this does impact FSU enrollment, I think that would be slightly naive because something like this can happen absolutely anywhere.
AL: Reporting for WSLR News, Alex Lieberman.
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