FSU shooting suspect was at center of years-long custody battle, documents show
In 2020, Christian Gunnar Eriksen went before a judge in his Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps uniform and asked to change his name to Phoenix Ikner.
The 10th-grade Honor Roll student at Lincoln High School cited a “tragic event” in 2015 — when court records show his mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, was arrested at Fort Lauderdale airport and accused of kidnapping him and taking him to Norway.
“He chose the name Phoenix,” a Leon County court document states, “because of its representation of rising from the ashes anew.”
On Thursday, police say Ikner walked onto Florida State University’s campus with a handgun and opened fire just before noon — wounding seven people, two of whom died. Another person was injured while fleeing. The two victims killed in the shooting were identified as Tim Chabba, 45, and Ricardo Morales Jr, 57.
A timeline released by law enforcement shows that Ikner spent about an hour moving in and out of his car in FSU’s parking garage. Around 11:56, he opened fire across fields and university buildings for five minutes before he was shot by police. His motivation remains unknown.
Documents obtained by the Miami Herald show the mass-shooting suspect had been at the center of a custody battle between his parents since he was a toddler — in which his father alleged that Ikner was neglected and abused by his mother. Reports state that Florida’s Department of Family and Child Services had an ongoing investigation, and that Ikner also had health issues that at times went unaddressed.
Efforts to reach Eriksen, the Ikners and their attorneys on Friday were unsuccessful.
READ MORE: FSU suspect cracked jokes the night before shooting in chat for Christian athletes
WHAT COURT DOCUMENTS REVEAL
Hundreds of pages of court documents in Leon County show that Phoenix Ikner grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and after 2015, lived primarily with his father, Christopher Ikner and step-mother Jessica Ikner — a Leon County sheriff’s deputy whose gun police say Phoenix used in the attack. His father wed Jessica Ikner in 2010.
In a statement to the Herald on Friday, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the department had “initiated an internal investigation” into Jessica Ikner.
“As of now, no policy violations have been identified,” Javonni Hampton, a spokesperson for the office, wrote in an emailed statement. “Deputy Ikner remains on personal leave.”
In 2007, when his parents went to court, Phoenix was about 3-years-old. His father requested that a court not allow his son to relocate to Norway — where Phoenix and Anne-Mari Eriksen are dual citizens. His mother said she would “run to Norway where he will never be able to find her or the child,” his father said in court records.
The request was granted — and both parents were barred from leaving Florida with their child without a court order. They were required to forfeit their passports.
In 2009, Christopher Ikner told the court in Leon County that he was worried about his son. According to documents, day care providers repeatedly said that he came into school with “sour clothes, or often dirty clothes.”
“The child is unkept, and looks as if he has not slept in a considerable period of time,” the father’s attorney said in a court filing.
The following year, while Phoenix Ikner was in elementary school, the court ordered that he undergo a psychological and psychiatric evaluation, according to a March 2010 court filing.
Other filings state that on March 19, 2015, Phoenix’s maternal grandmother drove him and his mother to Orlando – and told him they were going to Disney World. From there, despite the court order, they took a flight to Norway.
Court records show years of back-and-forth correspondence between his parents, and ongoing medical appointments. A probable cause affidavit in April 2015 stated that Phoenix was on medication for “several health and mental issues,” including a growth hormone disorder and ADHD.
“Since birth, the minor son has had and continues to have a variety of serious medical problems, and has several doctors and specialists in Tallahassee that prescribe and monitor medications for said problems,” documents state.
Later that year, in July, Phoenix and his father signed a petition for injunction for domestic violence against his mother. The petition describes his mother scratching him on his knee, and punching him in the chest and back. The document says his paternal grandmother took photos of the scratches, and they found “no marks visible” of the punches.
Phoenix “called us on the cell phone and told us he was being abused,” reads the petition.
READ MORE: ‘We owe our children better.’ Parkland survivors traumatized again by FSU shooting
Eriksen could not be immediately reached for comment. In a civil lawsuit alleging slander and libel, Eriksen said Christopher and Jessica Ikner were making false allegations against her and harassing her. The lawsuit was dismissed.
On a Facebook account that appears to belong to Eriksen, she wrote, “Love being my son Christian Gunnar (Phoenix) mother,” on May 14, 2023.
One of Phoenix Ikner’s elementary school teachers, who remembers him from 2015 as Christian Eriksen, said that he was “quiet and polite.” She said she was “shocked” to learn about the shooting.
“Christian was super sweet, quiet,” said the teacher, who asked not to be identified by name. “It’s really sad that children’s life experiences and access to guns can lead to tragedies like this.”
‘WANTED A FRESH START ON LIFE’
In 2017 — now around 13-years-old — Phoenix decided that he “wanted a fresh start on his life,” and to change his name, court records show. During his 2020 hearing to change his name, ”the court found him to be a mentally, emotionally, and physically mature young adult.”
At some point, he got involved in the Leon County Sheriff’s office: attending the office’s trainings and joining the Youth Advisory Council. Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil said at a press conference on FSU’s campus following the shooting that it was “tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever [fathom.]”
“He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family, engaged in a number of training programs that we have,” McNeil said.
This story was produced with financial support from the Esserman Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM.
