TALLAHASSEE, Fla. >> Students stood in prayer circles and piled balloons, candles and teddy bears along a sidewalk Friday near Florida State University’s student union where two people were shot and killed and six others were wounded during a rampage lasting less than five minutes.

The gunman, identified by police as the son of a sheriff’s deputy, had arrived on campus an hour before the shooting Thursday and stayed near a parking garage before he walked in and out of buildings and green spaces on campus, firing a handgun just before lunch time.

In less than four minutes, officers confronted 20-year-old son Phoenix Ikner, believed to be a Florida State student, and shot and wounded him.

— The Associated Press

Police have said two men who were not students died in the shooting. Five other victims also were shot and another person was hurt running away.

Medical staff at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare said Friday they treated six people for gunshots at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare are all expected to survive, according to medical staff.

While Florida State President Richard McCullough said Friday that some the wounded were students, hospital staffers would not give any information about the victims’ identities or if the shooter was among those being treated. Police earlier said the shooter was sent to a local hospital.

On campus Friday, classes were canceled but some students returned to retrieve their backpacks and laptops left behind after they barricaded classroom doors and eventually fled to safety.

“I don’t think any words can do it justice,” said Audrey Rothman, one of three members of the Florida State women’s volleyball team who brought flowers and held hands in a brief prayer circle.

Police believe Ikner used a former service weapon that belongs to his mother, an 18-year veteran of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, said Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. In recent years, she has worked as a middle school resource officer and was the department’s employee of the month a year ago in March.

After the shooting, she requested and was granted personal leave and also reassigned from her post at the school, said Shonda Knight, executive director of community and media relations for the agency.

The gunman was a long-standing member of the Leon County Sheriff’s youth advisory council, police said. The group was created to build communication between young people and local law enforcement while also teaching the teens leadership and team-building skills.

Authorities have not yet revealed a motive.

The shooting erupted just a few hours before a forum on countering hate on campus was to take place in a classroom building next to the scene of the shooting.

The event titled “United Against Hate: Building a Safer Campus and Community Together” was part of a project honoring Maura Binkley, a Florida State student who was shot and killed in a mass shooting at a yoga studio in 2018.

On Friday, a few miles from the campus, the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church began its Good Friday service with prayers for the shooting victims and families.

The Rev. R.B. Holmes said he visited the victims at the hospital with Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who attended the service.

“We’re not going to emphasize the tragedy,” Holmes said. “We’re going to emphasize hope and healing. Our faith says we shall overcome. I said to the students we will be there for them.”

Associated Press reporters Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale, Michael Schneider in Orlando, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.