Eight people were wounded Thursday during a mass shooting at Florida State University‘s Student Union, leaving two dead and six others hospitalized, officials said.
The alleged shooter, identified as 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner, was also wounded in an exchange of gunfire with responding officers and remained in the hospital.
As of Friday morning, two of the surviving victims are expected to be discharged, while three are listed in good condition and one remains in fair condition, according to a spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
TMH medical staff provided an update on the victims’ conditions on Friday afternoon and briefly explained how each patient needed to be treated for gunshot wounds. The staff said that at this time, all six victims are in stable condition, with one of them in fair condition due to the extent of their injuries.
Out of the six patients, three were brought into the operating room for surgery, with two of them needing abdominal surgery and the third needing facial surgery.
Authorities have not released the names of any victims. However, family members have identified one of the victims as Robert Morales, a university dining worker.
Robert Morales
Among those killed was 57-year-old Robert Morales, a longtime employee in the university’s dining services department. His death was confirmed by his brother, Ricardo Morales Jr., in a post on social media Thursday night.
“Today we lost my younger brother,” he wrote. “He was one of the victims killed at FSU. He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful wife and daughter. I’m glad you were in my life.”
According to the Miami Herald, Robert Morales was attending a meeting with other university employees when the shooting erupted. He was also the son of Ricardo “Monkey” Morales, a controversial Cuban American CIA operative and anti-Castro militant active during the Cold War. The elder Morales was killed in a bar fight in Miami in 1982.
While the university has yet to officially confirm the victims’ names, memorials of candles and flowers have begun to appear across campus, and a vigil is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at Langford Green.
