A Florida State University professor scared his students when he decided to cancel a lecture shortly before a fatal shooting occurred.
Dr. David Williams, a professor at the college of business at the Florida university, had planned to give his usual 11:30 talk on strategic management.
In an unexpected twist, Williams opted to cancel the lecture at the last minute, a choice that he later described as giving him chills upon hearing about the shooting.
Speaking with WKRG, Williams said he called it off to help students mentally prepare for their final exams and graduation.
His decision potentially saved lives in the horrific shooting, during which Phoenix Ikner, 20, opened fire and killed two people before he was shot by officers.
Neither of the victims were students with authorities yet to release their identities.
Williams told the outlet: ‘I don’t know if I saved lives, but I know that I was dropping off my clothes at the cleaners when the first email came in from a student, and I read it, and it did shake me a little bit.
‘Not lying — I got goose bumps. And I was thinking, “Oh, Lord, you know, she’s right”.’ he added.
The shooting unfolded just a few feet away from his classroom, adding: ‘We would have been right in the thick of it.’
Williams said that he has been in contact with his students who have all confirmed that they are okay.
He added: ‘Somebody lost their life; people are injured in the hospital, you got graduation coming up. It’s all going to have a pall over the whole thing.’
The campus was locked down as gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place as first responders swarmed the site moments after the lunchtime shootings.
Ikner is the son of a sheriff’s deputy and had used her gun in his rampage, which killed 2 people and injured six others.
All of those injured in the shooting are expected to make a full recovery after undergoing emergency surgery.
Ikner is currently in custody in hospital, after he was shot by officers at the scene.
Former classmates of Ikner have since said that he held ‘white supremacist’ beliefs and ‘espoused far right rhetoric’.
Speaking to NBC after the shooting, a student who was once part of a ‘political round table’ with Ikner revealed he harbored white supremacist views.
‘Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far right rhetoric as well,’ Reid Seybold said.]
Seybold, who was president of the club, said he had to kick Ikner out of the group due to his beliefs and rhetoric.
And Riley Pusins, who is part of another political discourse club on campus that Ikner would attend, had a similar experience with the suspect.
Pusins said Ikner would attend meetings ‘almost every Thursday’ in which he would ‘go up to the line’ about what was acceptable discussions, but would often cross the line after the formal meeting ended.
The student said Ikner often advocated President Donald Trump’s agenda, promoted white supremacist values and made inappropriate comments, despite joining a nonpartisan group.
Pusins said others in the group would describe Ikner as a ‘fascist.’ He had also recently mocked students on campus protesting the result of the 2024 election.
‘These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,’ Ikner said in his school magazine, where he was described as a political science major.
Officials said his mother is Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner, noting that he had access to one of her weapons which was then found at the scene.
Leon County Sheriff McNeil said at a press conference Thursday the gunman was a member of the department’s youth set-up and was involved in training programs.
Ikner was described as ‘steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family.’
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said the gun was previously used by his mother for law enforcement, but was her private handgun at the time of the shooting, because deputies ‘are allowed to purchase the handgun they used prior.’
