The Florida State University dining manager and his boss who was in town for a visit were both killed when a gunman opened fire.
Aramark Collegiate Hospitality regional vice president Tiru Chabba and FSU dining coordinator Robert Morales were gunned down at the Tallahassee campus.
FSU student Phoenix Ikner, 20, wounded six others in his rampage through the university on Thursday before he was shot and arrested by police.
Chabba, 45, lived in Simpsonville, South Carolina, and managed the South East region for the division of Aramark that provides catering to college campuses.
He was visiting FSU for meetings with staff and university officials and in the wrong place at the wrong time when Ikner opened fire.
Chabba worked for Aramark for more than 25 years, working his way up to his high-level position in October 2022.
Aramark Collegiate Hospitality regional vice president Tiru Chabba was killed in the Florida State University mass shooting on Thursday
Robert Morales was shot dead on the Tallahassee campus after 20-year-old student Phoenix Ikner opened fire
The father-of-two was mourned on social media by colleagues, some of whom described the chaotic scene.
‘One of the victims who lost their life at FSU was my regional vice president of the company I work for,’ FSU restaurant manager Anthony Cicatello wrote.
‘I didnt know him well but the times I shook his hand in passing while visiting locations on campus I know he was great person and colleague.
‘It’s sad that we have to experience these things in our workplace let alone on a collegiate campus. We had a visiting group of 60 middle school kids touring campus and eating in our dining hall when this occurred.
‘I can only imagine what those little kids were going through as they were underneath the chairs and tables in my dining hall fearing for their lives.’
Aramark vice president of food safety and quality Todd Gardener, who lives in Tallahassee, shared that his FSU student daughter was alive, but he lost a friend.
‘Today a co-worker and friend lost his life on campus in town for a meeting with our client from FSU,’ he wrote.
‘He won’t go home. He had his last meal with his family, said goodbye for the last time.
‘I’m feeling so many things but more than anything I’m angry. I’m so mad I want to scream.’
Chabba with his wife Vandana Joshi and their son
Chabba was visiting FSU for meetings with staff and university officials and in the wrong place at the wrong time when Ikner opened fire
Chabba, 45, lived in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with his family and managed the South East region for the division of Aramark that provides catering to college campuses
Another colleague, Jess Levy, wrote: ‘Tiru was an amazing leader and the most humble and kind person i’d ever had the pleasure to work for.’
Chabba’s family has already hired civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers of The Strom Law Firm and Jim Bannister to sue ‘all those who bear responsibility’.
‘Tiru Chabba’s family is going through the unimaginable now,’ Sellers said.
‘Instead of hiding Easter eggs and visiting with friends and family, they’re living a nightmare where this loving father and devoted husband was stolen from them in an act of senseless and preventable violence.
‘We ask you to keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as we fight to ensure they see justice that honors the memories of Mr Chabba and all the victims of Thursday’s shooting.’
Morales worked at the university as a dining coordinator for more than nine years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
‘Today we lost my younger brother. He was one of the victims killed at FSU,’ his older brother Ricardo said.
‘He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful Wife and Daughter. I’m glad you were in my Life.’
Morales worked at the university as a dining coordinator for more than nine years
Police officers walk past flowers left at the scene on Thursday afternoon
Prominent chef Art Smith, who once cooked for FSU and Oprah Winfrey and now owns six restaurants, paid tribute to his former colleague.
‘So very sad of the tragic loss of Robert Morales – kind man I worked with at FSU,’ he wrote.
‘The second victim was an Aramark Executive,we work together with Fairfield University.
‘My heart goes out to their families and the injured people at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.’
Morales was also one of the founders of Gordos Cuban Cuisine, a popular Cuban restaurant in Tallahassee.
‘This is a horrible, senseless tragedy. While it has been a long time since we worked together, my heart breaks for all the family and friends of Robert Morales,’ Gordos owner Eddie Agramonte said in a statement.
‘The Seminole nation is strong and I’m proud of how our community is rallying around each other during this time of loss.’
Morales’s employer Aramark said: ‘We are heartbroken to confirm that an Aramark employee was among those killed at FSU yesterday in that senseless act of violence.
‘We are absolutely shaken by the news and our deepest sympathies are with the family and our entire Aramark community.’
Two of the six injured in the shooting were expected to be discharged from Tallahassee Memorial hospital at some point on Friday.
Three other victims’ conditions are said to be improving, a spokesperson said, while another remained ‘in fair condition’.
Phoenix Ikner, seen here, is currently in hospital while in custody after being shot by officers at the scene
Ikner is the son of a sheriff’s deputy and had used her gun in his rampage
The campus was locked down as gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place as first responders swarmed the site moments after the lunchtime shootings.
Ikner is the son of a sheriff’s deputy and had used her gun in his rampage, which killed 2 people and injured six others.
Ikner is in custody in hospital, after he was shot by officers at the scene.
Witnesses spoke of chaos as people began running through the sprawling campus as shots rang out near the student union.
‘Everyone just started running out of the student union,’ a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.
‘About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots’, he said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection.
He added: ‘The whole entire thing was just surreal. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Everything was really quiet, then all chaotic.
Former classmates of Ikner have since said that he held ‘white supremacist’ beliefs and ‘espoused far right rhetoric’.
Speaking to NBC after the shooting, a student who was once part of a ‘political round table’ with Ikner revealed he harbored white supremacist views.
‘Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far right rhetoric as well,’ Reid Seybold said.
Ikner is seen in the above still stalking the campus with the firearm as the shooting unfolded
Seybold, who was president of the club, said he had to kick Ikner out of the group due to his beliefs and rhetoric.
Officials said his mother is Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner, noting that he had access to one of her weapons which was then found at the scene.
Leon County Sheriff McNeil said at a press conference Thursday the gunman was a member of the department’s youth set-up and was involved in training programs.
Ikner was described as ‘steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family.’
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said the gun was previously used by his mother for law enforcement, but was her private handgun at the time of the shooting, because deputies ‘are allowed to purchase the handgun they used prior.’
