TALLAHASSEE—3 minutes and 3 seconds.
That's how long it took for a deranged gunman to murder 2 and wound 5 others at Florida State University on April 17, 2025.
And though that Thursday's nightmare scenario permanently changed and tragically ended lives, it could have been "so much worse" if it weren't for a heroic officer and a malfunctioning shotgun, a grand jury indictment revealed Wednesday.
"We watched as Officer Cody Poppell drove his motorcycle towards the gunfire he could only hear. We watched the panicked students running past Strozier Library, and yet he accelerated up the sidewalks...[where]...he could clearly see the gunman chasing and shooting at another potential victim," the grand jury said in a statement, referring to the testimony State Attorney Jack Campbell's office, the prosecution, presented.
"[Poppell] stopped and shot several times while still straddling his running motorcycle. He struck him once in the face," the statement continues, lauding the heroic FSU Police Department officer.
"There is no question others would have died absent his actions."
20-year-old Phoenix Ikner was formally indicted Wednesday for opening fire outside and within FSU's busiest and most popular study hub, the three-tiered Student Union, two weeks before final exams. He was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
This comes a day after Ikner was denied bail during his first court appearance, via Zoom, where he was appointed a public defender.
He acted alone. He acted randomly.
"Jarringly," the jury noted, there were no warning signs. No disciplinary actions, no mental health check-ins, no student or teacher complaints. Only whispers of "rude or awkward" speech that while alarming, wasn't threatening enough to indicate that the 20-year-old stepson of a sheriff's deputy was plotting to kill as many of his peers as he could.
The Attack: Malfunctioning Shotgun and Chasing Victims
At 11:07 a.m., Ikner pulled his orange Hummer into a parking garage near the Student Union. He was wearing a garnet and gold shirt, ironically—or perhaps not—FSU's colors, and gray shorts. He got in and out of the vehicle multiple times, before driving to and parking in an open-air lot behind and between the Union and the Moore Auditorium at 11:57 a.m.
This is when a witness says he pulled a brown shotgun out of his car, took aim at a nearby male—but it didn't fire. The jury speculates there was some sort of "malfunction," leading Ikner to put the shotgun back in the car and grab a handgun instead.
24 seconds later, the first shot was fired at a nearby female student. Ikner then ran toward the Union through the grass, shooting two people.
Student Union, Moore Auditorium, Bookstore
At 11:58, he ran through the Student Union, exited the western entrance, opened fire, and killed his first victim, 45-year-old Tiru Chabba.
Turning left, he made to continue the rampage but then spun, came back to the deceased, and shot him again. He moved toward the Bookstore entrance—not far from the western entrance—and shot two more people.
At 11:59, seconds after chasing and shooting at a group of people outside of the Bookstore, he reentered the Union, sprinted toward the Food Court, and killed his second victim, 57-year-old Robert Morales, by the Pollo Tropical and Brooklyn Pizza restaurants. Ikner shot him twice as he lay on the ground.
Twelve seconds later, he chased a female student through the Food Court and outside of the double doors in front of Panda Express, feet away from the expansive grassy area where students regularly host concerts.
14 seconds after the clock struck noon, he chased a person through the bushes, heading south, on the east side of the Union.
13 seconds later, at 12:00:27 p.m., Officer Poppell struck him in the jaw.
The Victims
The two men killed were Miami-native Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 43, a South Carolina dad of two. While five were hospitalized, the indictment lists seven people as Ikner's attempted murder victims, presumably including two others not critically injured.
This includes five females and two males, though none are named in the indictment.
Aside from his shotgun, which he stole from his parents' home, officers recovered a .45 pistol he'd nabbed from his father's bedside and his stepmother's Glock 21.
"This was our community's worst nightmare," the statement adds.
