Families Identify 2 Men Killed In Florida State University Shooting

Updated at 6:40 p.m.

TALLAHASSEE, FL — The suspect in the Florida State University shooting that killed two people and injured five others was a political science major at the university and had been active in youth programs at the sheriff's office where his mother was a deputy.

Phoenix Ikner, 20, is accused in the shooting that happened about noon Thursday on the campus near the student union, authorities have said.

The two people killed have not been identified, but authorities said they were men and were not students at the university. But, a family member said that university employee Robert Morales was one of those who were killed. Attorneys for the family of the second victim identified him as Tiru Chabba, a food service vendor executive. Here is what we know about Morales and Chabba.

Robert Morales

Robert Morales was a university dining coordinator who had worked at Florida State since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“Today we lost my younger Brother, he was one of the victims killed at FSU,” Ricardo Morales Jr. posted on social media late Thursday. “He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful Wife and Daughter. I’m glad you were in my life.”

Morales had studied criminology at the school in the early 1990s, according to the LinkedIn profile.
The profile also said he was CEO of Black Bean Food Group, though state records show that the business was dissolved a decade ago.

Morales developed innovative menus, especially Cuban food, and was a former assistant football coach at nearby Leon High School, Kyle Clark, a senior vice president at FSU, said Friday afternoon at a vigil.

“He didn’t just do a job. He lived the job,” Clark said. “He was a stellar person."

The Morales brothers' father, Ricardo Morales, was a Cuban exile turned CIA operative in South Florida with the nickname “Monkey.” Ricardo Morales Jr. describes his father's work as a contract agent for the CIA in the forthcoming book, “Monkey Morales: The True Story of a Mythic Cuban Exile, Assassin, CIA Operative, FBI Informant, Smuggler, and Dad,” which is expected to be published later this year.

“Dubbed ‘The Monkey’ for his disruptive and unpredictable escapades, Morales grabbed headlines for decades as tales of his bombings, arrests, assassination attempts (both those he executed and those he suffered), and testimony constructed a real-life spy adventure unlike anything brought to page or screen,” reads promotional material from publisher Simon & Schuster.

The elder Morales was fatally shot in a bar brawl in 1982 at the age of 43.

Tiru Chabba

Tiru Chabba was working for food service vendor Aramark when he was killed on the Florida State campus, said Michael Wukela, a spokesperson for attorneys hired by the family.

A LinkedIn profile listed Chabba as a regional vice president of Aramark Collegiate Hospitality who had worked for the company for more than two decades. The 45-year-old Greenville, South Carolina, resident was a married father of two children who had earned an MBA from The Citadel in South Carolina.

"Tiru Chabba’s family is going through the unimaginable now,” Bakari Sellers, one of the attorneys hired by the family, said in a statement. “Instead of hiding Easter eggs and visiting with friends and family, they’re living a nightmare where this loving father and devoted husband was stolen from them in an act of senseless and preventable violence.”

More On The Shooting, Vigil

Of the five people who were injured, two were anticipated to be released from the hospital on Friday, USA Today reported, and the others were in good and fair condition.

Authorities also have not released a motive for the shooting.

A vigil for the victims was scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday on campus and classes were canceled.

Ikner also was hospitalized with serious injuries after authorities shot him. The injuries were not life-threatening, NBC reported.

As students began retrieving belongings left behind when they sought shelter during the shooting, information about Ikner began to emerge.

Ikner, the son of sheriff's deputy Jessica Ikner, was a member of the sheriff’s Youth Advisory Council in Leon County. The group exists to give teens an ability to address issues with the sheriff's department and to help them build skills in leadership and advocacy, according to the sheriff's department.

Jessica Ikner has been a deputy with the department for more than 18 years and "her service to this community has been exceptional," Sheriff Walter McNeil said.

The handgun Phoenix Ikner is alleged to have used in the shooting belonged to his mother, and had been one of her service weapons before she bought it as her personal firearm, NBC reported.

Ikner told the Florida State University student newspaper article about anti-Trump protests in January that he was a political science major, and was quoted as saying, "I think it’s a little too late, he’s (Trump) already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that," multiple reports said.

Ikner, a registered Republican, allegedly was asked to leave a political club over behavior that "unsettled others," CNN reported, quoting Florida State student Reid Seybold, who said he knew Ikner.

"He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming. That’s kind of when we reached the breaking point with Phoenix, and we asked him to leave," Seybold told CNN.

Ikner also was caught in the middle of a custody dispute when he was 10 years and was taken to Norway by his biological mother, the CNN report said.

He was named Christian Eriksen at the time, and the CNN report said he and his biological mother are both dual US-Norwegian citizens. Ikner changed his name in 2020, ABC reported.