Tallahassee, FL — A devastating shooting at Florida State University on April 17 left two individuals dead and five wounded, triggering a campus-wide lockdown and a swift law enforcement response which resulted in the shooter being injured and taken into custody. The assailant, identified as Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student and stepson of a local deputy sheriff, reportedly used his parent’s old service weapon for the attack.
In the immediate aftermath of the violence, misinformation surrounding the incident began to circulate online, compounded by the sharing of a photograph misidentified as Ikner at a political protest. The photo, however, was actually of Oliver Cheese, another student at the university, from a rally held months earlier against former President Donald Trump.
Oliver Cheese, active with the Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society, confirmed his identity and expressed distress over the confusion, fearing for his safety as the misidentification propagated across social media. Cheese expressed disbelief that he was mistaken for the shooter, highlighting the irresponsible dissemination of false information following such tragic events.
The original rally photo had been taken on January 14, during a march organized to protest Trump’s policies and the Republican Party. Coverage of this event by campus and local news had appropriately credited Cheese. However, the reuse of this image following April’s shooting incident sparked undue anxiety and spread misinformation.
The shooter, Ikner, known to have watched the January protest, was suffering from issues detailed in various interviews with classmates and an extensive review of his digital and school records. Sources described him as a loner with extremist views, including white supremacist ideology and denial of the 2020 presidential election results. These reports contributed to an understanding of a deeply troubled individual who harbored racially motivated hatred.
Additionally, Ikner’s online activities were found to include extremely troubling imagery and associations, such as using Adolf Hitler’s picture as a profile image on a gaming site and adopting the name of a Nazi paramilitary group for another account.
Misinformation often finds fertile ground in the chaos that follows mass shootings, partly due to the urgent hunger for information and the ease of sharing unverified content online. The mix-up between Ikner and Cheese is a stark example of how quickly and widely misinformation can spread, impacting innocent individuals’ lives.
The frequent occurrence of mass shootings in the United States compounds these issues, as digital platforms scramble to update in real-time amidst rapidly unfolding events. Public demand for swift justice and answers often leads to premature and sometimes incorrect conclusions being shared among communities, both online and offline.
This incident at Florida State University underscores the critical need for careful examination of content shared on social media, particularly in the fraught hours and days following national tragedies. Accurate identification and reporting by responsible parties play a vital role in managing the flood of information and protecting individuals from misdirected backlash.