Video Shows Fla. Campus Police Ending Deadly FSU Shooting

In a confrontation that lasted about three minutes, newly released body camera footage captures a Florida State University police shooting a gunman and stopping his 2025 campus rampage that killed two people and injured six others.

The footage depicts the events of April 17, 2025, when Phoenix Ikner is accused of opening fire while walking between buildings and green spaces on the FSU's campus, according to a Tallahassee police timeline. After nearly 10 minutes, FSU Police Officer Cody Poppell arrived at the scene on a motorcycle, and he opened fire, wounding Ikner, WCTV-TV reports.

Poppell's body camera captured the shooting. An investigation cleared Poppell, and he has been lauded for his quick, decisive actions.

“There’s an old adage about we don’t rise to the level of our training during an emergency. We sink to it,” John Creamer, deputy executive director for the Florida Deputy Sheriff’s Association, told WCTV. “Everybody performed to task. There was nothing negative in the press, nothing. It was just a stellar response by everybody involved.”

Ikner was treated at the scene before being taken to the hospital. His trial is scheduled for October, and he could face the death penalty.

According to WCTV, Ikner had asked AI chatbot ChatGPT about when the university's student union was its busiest hours before the shooting. He also asked questions about consequences for mass shooters.

One of the victims in the shooting plans to file a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, WCTV reports.