State attorney: Release of FSU shooting video 'blindsided' victims

• The State Attorney's Office says it mistakenly released body and security camera footage from a mass shooting at Florida State University.
• The videos show moments of panic, the gunman being taken down by police, and officers clearing the campus.
• State Attorney Jack Campbell said the footage should not have been released for security reasons and to protect victims' privacy.

New body camera and security camera video from the day of the mass shooting at Florida State University has been sweeping the nation, but the State Attorney's Office of the Second Judicial Circuit says the footage should never have been released in the first place.

Last year, on April 17, prosecutors say Phoenix Ikner opened fire at the university's student union, killing two and injuring five. The recently released videos show moments of panic inside the student union as bystanders realize what's unfolding and the moment an FSU police officer takes down Ikner to arrest him.

But when the Tallahassee Democrat requested copies of the videos, the office said "some protected records were mistakenly released" when fulfilling a previous records request.

"Due to this error there is an ongoing review of pending records requests to address and remove the records that were inadvertently released," the State Attorney's Office said. "Once this review has been completed, your records request will be answered."

What do the videos show?

The footage featured across news outlets, including local TV news stations WTXL and WCTV, begins seconds before an FSU police officer rides up to the scene and fires his first shots at Ikner while still seated on his motorcycle.

"Stay on the ground now," the officer yells after firing at least a dozen bullets.

He takes off running toward Ikner as a bystander runs past him trying to get away. Another officer's camera later shows a handcuffed Ikner lying on the ground as officers wait for medics to attend to the facial wound he endured when the officer "neutralized" the threat.

Before this, soundless surveillance camera footage shows Ikner running through the union with his gun, with one camera angle even catching him chasing down two students.

Students can be seen studying, eating and working on their computers, and within seconds everyone scrambles to exit the building and avoid flying bullets.

Later footage shows other officers' cameras that captured the process of clearing campus and releasing students from classrooms. Students are seen walking out of classrooms and buildings with their hands up, and some who have phones in hand on calls with loved ones.

One video snippet shows an officer helping a wounded victim alongside paramedics.

"Let me check your blood pressure," a paramedic can be heard saying.

"Run that way," the officer shouts to a student who's running by. "Keep your hands up and run that way for me."

More body camera footage from the officer who shot down Ikner shows FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower praising him for his heroism.

"Are you the one who shot him?" Trumbower asked.

"I shot him, yes sir," the officer said.

"OK, good job," Trumbower said. "You good?"

Why won't the State Attorney's Office release them?

State Attorney Jack Campbell told the Tallahassee Democrat he knew people would make the argument that the videos are already out there so there's no reason to withhold them now. He disagrees.

"Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Campbell said. “Just because I made one mistake doesn’t mean I should make another."

Campbell explained that the videos were accidentally released without proper redactions after a deluge of record requests piled up asking for Ikner's chat logs with ChatGPT once the Tallahassee Democrat broke news that a lawsuit was being filed against the leading AI chatbot.

Records show Ikner was in “constant communication” with the app before bullets started flying.

Campbell said he immediately shut down the release of footage from his office once he realized what happened and took full responsibility for the mistake because the raw videos weren't supposed to be released for a number of reasons.

Chief among them is that surveillance footage cannot be given out, he said, because it allows future criminals to see where cops are surveilling, which could potentially aid them in evading arrest.

There are videos where officers are seen running up to victims and victims are identified. Campbell said victims' names and faces are supposed to be redacted, especially those who asked to remain confidential.

And on a personal level, Campbell said he had promised the victims they could view the footage first.

“I had told the victims that I would let them see (them) in a controlled and intimate setting before they had to see it on the news," he said.

Campbell said he's very upset this happened and that he hurt the victims' families. They were alerted as soon as he saw what happened.

"We blindsided them," he said.

Elena Barrera can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.