Phoenix Ikner, formerly Christian Gunnar Eriksen, wasn’t just some isolated lunatic. He was raised inside the law enforcement bubble. Not just adjacent to it—inside it. His stepmother is Leon County Deputy Jessica Ikner, a longtime school resource officer who, incredibly, took her stepson to the firing range and let him practice with her personal handgun. That’s the same weapon he allegedly used to murder two people and injure six more at FSU.
The Sheriff’s Office didn’t suspend her. They gave her personal leave and called it a tragedy. Which it is—but not just in the way they mean. It’s a tragedy of complicity. A tragedy of law enforcement raising, arming, and ignoring a ticking time bomb who was steeped in their own programs. McNeil said it himself:
“He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family.”
Then maybe the question isn’t what went wrong—maybe it’s who taught him how to aim.
This post has been syndicated from Closer to the Edge, where it was published under this address.