The profile picture of Phoenix Ikner, the suspected shooter in the attack at FSU. (ADL)
(JTA) — The suspect in last week’s shooting at Florida State University used Nazi imagery and language in his online profiles, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Phoenix Ikner, 20, is accused of killing two and wounding six in the shooting on April 17. In a review of his online gaming profiles, the ADL’s Center on Extremism found that he was the latest shooting suspect to express admiration for the Nazis and Adolf Hitler.
According to a screenshot the ADL posted on X, Ikner used a crude drawing of Hitler saying “nein,” German for no, as his profile photo on XBOX Live. In another screenshot shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ikner’s profile uses the emblem of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group known for disseminating antisemitic propaganda on college campuses and elsewhere.
A screenshot of the alleged shooter’s inbox shows him being referred to as “Schutzstaffel,” the Nazi paramilitary group known as the SS that played a leading role in perpetrating the Holocaust.
Ikner’s search history also showed that he may have looked up “scientific racism,” an idea that underlaid Nazi antisemitism, as well as “national confederate flag.”
An ADL study from January found that bigotry, including antisemitism, was common on online gaming platforms.
“Neither one means anything in particular but they’re part of the broader story,” Carla Hill, a senior director of investigative research at the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told USA Today of the screenshots. “It gives us a little more insight into what he’s thinking about and curious about.”
Other mass shooters in recent years have espoused Nazi ideas, even in cases where they haven’t targeted Jewish institutions. In January, the ADL found that the suspect in a Nashville school shooting had praised Hitler and shared neo-Nazi content. A series of mass shooters in recent years have promoted the antisemitic “great replacement theory.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
