The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted an analysis of the online profiles of Phoenix Ikner, the 20-year-old accused of carrying out the shooting at Florida State University. Among the results, a caricature of Adolf Hitler, which the suspect used as his profile picture on his Xbox Live account, stands out.
Additionally, Ikner was found to have adopted the emblem of the Patriot Front, a group known for spreading anti-Semitic propaganda on college campuses and other platforms. A message was also found in his inbox referring to him as the "Schutzstaffel," the Nazi paramilitary organization that played a key role in the Holocaust.
Carla Hill, senior director of research at the ADL's Center on Extremism, commented that while these details don't necessarily signify a direct cause of the shooting, they provide deeper insight into the mindset and ideas that may have influenced the suspect.
This case is not isolated, as other perpetrators of shootings in recent years have also shown an affinity for Nazism, even in cases where they have not directly targeted Jewish institutions. For example, in January of this year, the ADL discovered that the suspect in a Nashville school shooting had praised Hitler and shared neo-Nazi content.