A photo has gone viral that claims to show alleged FSU shooter Phoenix Ikner marching in an anti-Trump rally on the university campus. The photo appeared just hours after Ikner opened fire on the Tallahassee campus on Thursday, killing two and injuring six people, who are still recovering in the hospital.
However, the photo that claims to show Ikner, 20, taking part in an anti-Trump rally is fake. The photo shows Oliver Cheese, one of the organizers of the anti-Trump rally with Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society, marching behind a banner that reads "Fight Trump and the GOP agenda." The two students have absolutely no connection with each other.
The Bizarre Claim
The viral claim on social media that Ikner took part in the rally likely stemmed from a misleading article by FSU News, which mentioned his name in a section referring to "onlookers" at the protest. However, he was not mentioned as a participant in the rally.
One example of the misleading claim can be found in a post on X, shared on April 17, the day of the shooting, which wrongly linked Ikner's name with the viral photo.
The caption of the viral post read: "BREAKING: The FSU shooting suspect, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, had previously attended an anti-Trump rally."
The photo first appeared in an Instagram post by the Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society before it went viral on other social media platforms.
Fake and No Basis for Truth
However, the claim is completely misleading and fake, as the photos that are in circulation show Oliver Cheese, whose Instagram bio describes him as "FSU Class of '27, Organizer with @tallysds, On the Freedom Road @freedomroadorg, The big Cheese."
The post made by Cheese includes a link to the Instagram account @tallysds, which is the Instagram account of the "Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society" group.
In one Instagram photo, Cheese can be seen wearing a "Freedom Road Socialist Organization" T-shirt. Moreover, a banner of that organization can also be seen in at least two of the photos shared in the TSDS Instagram post.
The false claim likely went viral after some social media users shared a screenshot of an FSU News article that highlighted Ikner's name and included a quote from him related to the protest.
However, Ikner's name was mentioned only in a section of the article discussing "onlookers" and not the actual protesters at the rally.
Ikner, according to several of his classmates, held white supremacist views and was a registered Republican. Hence the claim is completely false.
