The student who was filmed lying on the ground by someone casually drinking from a Starbucks cup after the horrific shooting incident at Florida State University has revealed why the shooter did not kill her.
The woman, 23-year-old Madison Askins, went viral on social media after someone recorded her while she lay bleeding on the school’s lawn. Fortunately, she is recovering well and recently discussed her ordeal with NBC.
Askins said she was running after the gunfire broke out and fell to the ground while trying to get away from the shooter; however, she was shot in the rear while her friend was trying to help her up.
“At one point I did think [the gunman] had walked away, so I was going to shift over to grab my phone to share my last ‘I love you’s’ with my family,” she said.
She credits her playing dead as the only reason she’s still alive today.
“I heard the gunman come up next to me, and I heard him reload,” she recalled. “There was a clip at my feet when everything was said and done.”
You can hear her full recollection in the video below:
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NEW: The woman who was filmed by an individual sipping on a Starbucks coffee during the FSU tragedy this week, has been identified as 23-year-old Madison Askins.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 19, 2025
Askins says she was running for her life when she fell.
The student says that as her friend tried to help… pic.twitter.com/FZ3oUYCxp5
Florida State Shooter Had A Fascination With Nazi Germany
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the shooter, Phoenix Ikner, was fascinated by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, based on his online history.
Ikner, the son of a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy, used one of his mother’s handguns to carry out the shooting on the Florida State campus. Reports note he also had a shotgun.
The ADL notes that he used a drawing of Hitler with the word “Nein” in a thought bubble as his profile photo for a gaming account and labeled another online account “Schutzstaffel,” which is the name of Hitler’s group of bodyguards who later became his death squad.
Ikner was arrested after a shootout with police.
