Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald is commenting following the Florida State University mass shooting tragedy Thursday.

Investigators say the 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy opened fire at Florida State University in Tallahassee with his mother’s former service weapon - killing two people and wounding at least six others. Officers who arrived almost immediately shot and wounded the shooter. He's believed to be a Florida State student. Police identified the shooter as Phoenix Ikner. They say he began firing around lunchtime just outside the student union, sending students and frightened parents hiding for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building. Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting.

The Florida tragedy marked the second mass shooting incident at Florida State in recent memory.

McDonald said while their sympathies are obviously with the victims, "thoughts and prayers" are not enough and gun violence is a public health crisis.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has experienced 81 mass shootings in 2025, which is only 107 days old. This week alone, six people were killed and 29 others were injured in six mass shootings.

McDonald said the gun violence crisis can be addressed through education and prevention. She said “Unfortunately, in the aftermath of mass shootings, too often political leaders use the immediate grief of victims as an excuse to avoid doing the work to address gun violence. That is unacceptable”.

After Oxford, McDonald said they did something different in Oakland County – they acted.

McDonald said through their community-led Commission to Address Gun Violence and the All of Us Foundation, they’ve established Protocols for Action to address and prevent gun violence but there is “much more to do”. She said “It requires leadership and a will to solve this problem, rather than hide from it. No one person has all the answers, but if we work together as Americans, we can solve this problem. And we must solve it, because no one should have to fear gun violence when they go to a school, park, or grocery store”.

More information about the Florida tragedy and others from the Associated Press is available in the provided link.

AP photos.