(NewsNation) — At least two people are dead and six others injured after a gunman opened fire at the student union building at Florida State University in Tallahassee on Thursday, officials said.
The two people who are dead are not students, authorities said during a Thursday press conference. No other information about the victims was provided.
The alleged shooter, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, is a current student at the school and the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, according to officials. He is in police custody and was also injured after refusing to obey commands from law enforcement.
Police said the weapon used in the shooting was the former service weapon of the alleged shooter’s mother.
The shooter’s motive is still unclear, but former U.S. Marshal Art Roderick thinks the location of the shooting, an area on campus where students congregate, suggests an intent to inflict mass damage.
“It’s a target where you can mix in with a crowd very easily, and you’ve got a lot of people that you can actually target to shoot,” Roderick, former assistant director for investigations with the U.S. Marshals, said on “NewsNation Now” on Thursday.
“That’s probably the motivation behind this particular individual,” Roderick continued.
Ryan Cedergren, a junior at FSU, said he was at the school’s student union building when he saw people running.
“Our immediate thought was, ‘This isn’t right, something is going on,” Cedergren said.
He sheltered in the building with others and said he understood within a minute that a shooting was occurring.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you until it does,” Cedergren said.
Another student, Christopher Malave, told NewsNation he had just finished lunch and was at the student union when people started flooding inside. Malave said he ran and hid behind some bushes when he heard gunfire.
“I started hearing several rounds of additional gunshots,” he said. “It was a horrific situation.”
This is a developing story.
Watch the full interview with Art Roderick in the player above.