The biological mother of Phoenix Ikner, the 20-year-old Florida State University student accused in a deadly campus shooting, has broken her silence, stating she had long-standing concerns about her son’s well-being, as reported by The New York Post.
Ikner is charged with killing two Aramark employees and injuring six others in a mass shooting that occurred on the FSU campus in Tallahassee.
Anne-Mari Eriksen, a Norwegian-American dual citizen who lives in Tallahassee, told WPLG on Friday that she had not seen her son in several years but had growing unease about his condition.
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“I have been concerned for him in the past, but I would never have thought that,” Eriksen said, referring to the violence that unfolded last week.
Eriksen and Phoenix’s father, Christopher Ikner, were involved in a contentious custody battle that came to a head in 2015 when Eriksen took her then-10-year-old son overseas without the father’s consent.
Eriksen claimed she was taking her son to South Florida for spring break but instead flew him to Norway.
The unauthorized trip led to her arrest when she returned to the United States in July 2015. She was taken into custody at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and later pleaded no contest to a charge of illegally removing a child from the state.
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Eriksen was sentenced to 200 days in jail.
Following her incarceration, Phoenix was placed in the custody of his father, Christopher Ikner, and his stepmother, Jessica Ikner, a deputy with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities say the firearm used in the campus shooting belonged to Jessica Ikner.
After news of the shooting broke—but before her son was identified publicly—Eriksen posted a now-deleted message on Facebook criticizing the boy’s father and stepmother.
“Horrible when your alienating son’s dad is as mentally unstable as he is, along with his LCSO cop wife, that they can’t respond when you write to ask if everything is alright with my son, who studies at FSU. That whole familly [sic] is nuts. He should write a book on how to parent badly, but he can’t communicate. Feel sorry for everyone at FSU and their kids.”
Phoenix Ikner, who had transferred to FSU from Tallahassee State College after earning an associate’s degree, was a junior majoring in political science at the time of the attack.
Police say he did not comply with initial commands during the incident and was shot before being taken into custody.
Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the shooting, which left Aramark employees Tiru Chabba, 45, and Robert Morales, 57, dead and six others injured. The investigation remains ongoing.
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