A trail of white supremacist ideology leads to suspected FSU shooter: Report

• According to an investigation by the Anti-Defamation League, Phoenix Ikner, the 20-year-old suspected gunman in Thursday’s mass shooting at FSU, has a history of espousing white supremacist ideology, as well as idolizing Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. The ADL often analyzes the online accounts and activity of those who are suspected or convicted of committing mass shootings.
• In addition to profile photos and usernames that reference Hitler and the Nazis, the ADL also found that Ikner’s search history included phrases such as “scientific racism” and “national confederate flag.”
• The ADL’s findings echo behaviors and comments that Ikner’s classmates have shared.

Full Story

According to an investigation by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Phoenix Ikner, the suspected gunman in a mass shooting that killed two and injured six others at Florida State University on Thursday, April 17, has a history of espousing white supremacist ideologies and idolizing Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. The ADL often analyzes the online accounts and activity of those who are suspected or convicted of committing mass shootings.

On Friday, April 18, authorities identified the 20-year-old Ikner as the alleged shooter. He is a political science major at FSU and the stepson of Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner.

Profile photos, usernames honor Hitler and the Nazis

In one profile photo for a gaming platform, Ikner used a drawing of Hitler with the word “Nein” in a thought bubble. On another, his handle was “Schutzstaffel,” otherwise known as the “SS,” a paramilitary group that went from serving as Hitler’s bodyguard to overseeing the Nazi concentration camps. Another profile photo featured the symbol for Patriot Front, a U.S.-based white nationalist group.

The ADL also found that Ikner’s search history included phrases such as “scientific racism” and “national confederate flag.”

The ADL, which had a team of some 20 researchers looking at Ikner’s posts and accounts, shared its findings with USA Today on Friday. “Neither one means anything in particular but they’re part of the broader story,” said Carla Hill, a senior director of investigative research with the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “It gives us a little more insight into what he’s thinking about and curious about.”

The ADL’s findings support what Ikner’s classmates have said

Ikner’s online activity echoes behavior that some have mentioned in the wake of the shooting. According to classmates at Tallahassee State College, where Ikner attended before transferring to FSU, he used “concerning rhetoric” that made others uncomfortable, including when he said that Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks was “in the wrong” for taking a seat in the front of a bus.

Speaking to USA Today, Lucas Luzietti, a classmate of Ikner’s, said he “got into arguments with [Ikner] in class over how gross the things he said were.” Among them, the idea that Joe Biden’s presidency was illegal and that “Black people were ruining his neighborhood.”

Another classmate at Tallahassee State College said that Ikner had to be told to leave a “political round table” club. “Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric, and far-right rhetoric as well, to the point where we had to exercise that rule,” said Reid Seybold.

“It’s just concerning,” Hill told USA Today. “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.”