FSU Mass Shooter Was Taken & Alienated from Mom at 10-Years-Old
And: Attempted Murderer of Gov. Shapiro Had Primary Custody
Two high-profile stories in the news this week involve Custody Crisis cases: the Florida State University mass shooting and the attempted murder of the Pennsylvania Governor.
The Florida shooter was taken away from his mother when he was 10-years-old and severely alienated from her. This trauma and the resulting psychological damage likely played a role, possibly a large one, in him committing this horrible crime.
The other one involves a man setting fire to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence in an attempt to murder him. This man had been granted primary custody of his very young children despite being out on bail for DV charges and having a lengthy criminal history.
These cases can be used as a springboard to raise awareness about the Custody Crisis. Use them as examples when talking to friends, family, and coworkers about how Family Court judges are systematically switching custody to abusive and unfit fathers and allowing them to alienate children from mothers—and how the damage is not just to mothers and children but to society, as these two cases exemplify.
As usual, MSM is missing the most important points in these stories, so make sure you subscribe to Women’s Coalition News & Views!
FSU SHOOTER
Phoenix Ikner, the Florida State University shooter, was born in 2005 to Anne-Mari Eriksen and Christopher Ikner. He was named Christian Eriksen but changed it after the father was given custody.
He was a happy little boy.
Anne-Mari left Christopher two years later and a custody battle ensued. It is unclear what the interim orders were, but likely some kind of joint parenting arrangement that Anne-Mari thought was not good for Christian. She claimed his father and stepmother were abusive and kept fighting for primary custody.
Christopher believed Christian had a growth disorder and was giving him hormones, as well as medication for ADHD. But Anne-Mari apparently disagreed with at least one of those things and did not think he should be medicated.
In March, 2015, she took Christian to Norway, where she is from and her mother lives. She believed it was in his best interests to get him away from his father and stepmother.
Christopher got Anne-Mari criminally charged with custodial interference. A few months after she left, Anne Marie was ordered to return to the U.S.
Upon arrival at the airport, she was arrested and jailed. This is her mugshot. It will be added to our Mugshot Mamas campaign.
Anne-Mari pled no contest and was sentenced to 200 days in jail. She was released in early 2016, anxious to see Christian again.
But Christopher would not allow any contact between Christian and his mother. The Family Court judge made no provisions for him to see her, not even supervised—because that is what the almighty father wanted.
Christopher falsely alleged that Anne-Mari had abused Christian. She filed a defamation suit against him and included his abuse and the alienation of Christian from her. She claimed it was doing great emotional and psychological damage to him.
Christian Gunnar Eriksen is the victim of psychological and emotional abuse, as well as parental alienation.
Both cases were dismissed.
The alienation from his mother reached its height in 2020. At 15 years-old, Christian changed his name to Phoenix Ikner, undoubtedly under the influence of his father. This removal of his mother’s last name and replacement with his father’s further erased her from his life. The name Phoenix is also telling—symbolizing rising from the ashes of his past with his mother. This level of brainwashing of a child against his mother is horrific.
Phoenix entered Florida State University as a political science major. He joined an on-campus political group but was kicked out due to his far right and white supremacist views, as well as his aggressiveness [read: anger], also likely influenced by his father and stepmother.
Phoenix’s anger apparently came to a head on Thursday, April 17th. He went to FSU toting his stepmother’s guns and shot eight people.
He would not surrender so he was shot by the police. It seems he wanted to “die by cop”. But he survived and is in the hospital in serious but not life-threatening condition. He is refusing to speak to police.
Two adults who worked at the student union were killed and six students were seriously injured but are recovering. The shooting was seemingly random.
After hearing about the shooting at his school, Anne-Mari was trying desperately to find out if Phoenix was OK. Then she got the news that he was the shooter.
Anne-Mari never stopped fighting to see Christian/Phoenix and get custody back—all the way until he turned 18. She had warned time and time again about the psychological damage being done to him by the alienation, even filing a lawsuit regarding it.
But nobody cared. She was dismissed and discredited, while the father was empowered to continue alienating him. And now two people are dead and six seriously injured. If only someone, like the Family Court judge, had done the right thing…
ATTEMPTED MURDERER
Cody Balmer, the attempted murderer of Governor Shapiro, married Adrian, a behavioral health technician, in 2017. She became a stepmother to his two sons from a previous marriage. The boys were 6 and 9 and he had equal parenting time with them.
In 2019, Adrian gave birth to a daughter. Two years later, she gave birth to another daughter.
Cody was repeatedly abusive to Adrian. In January of 2023, he assaulted her and his two sons when they tried to intervene and protect her. Police made a report and he was indicted on three assault charges. He was immediately released on bail.
This violence led to them separating, and Adrian filed for divorce. A criminal Restraining Order was put in place, supposedly protecting Adrian and the four kids. It said Cody “shall not abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or attempt or threaten to use physical force” against them.
But it’s already illegal for him to do any of those things, and the RO only prohibits him from having contact with Adrian, not the children. That meant the children were not protected at all. It also enabled the Family Court judge to give him custody.
Shortly after the RO was granted against Cody, he was given primary custody of the girls, who were just toddlers—2 and 4—when it would have been bad enough if the judge gave him unsupervised visits. But it was not just his history of domestic violence the judge overlooked, it was multiple arrests involving assault, forgery and theft. Not to mention the fact that he was still out on bail pending the criminal trial for assaulting his family!
Cody, like so many other ex-husbands, likely wanted primary custody to get revenge, eliminate child support or to be paid support, which is what primary custody likely got him. The judge had no problem switching custody from a loving mother, the girl’s primary attachment figure and caregiver, so as to give the father what he wants, i.e. to entitle him, ignoring all his abuse, criminality, and unfitness.
So that is where things stood when, in the early hours of last Sunday morning, Primary Custodian Cody walked an hour to the Governor’s residence, scaled the fence, broke two windows with a hammer, threw Molotov cocktails inside, starting a raging fire.
The fire did tremendous damage to the official residence of PA governors, but fortunately everyone made it out safely.
Cody Balmer is being held without bail, charged with attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson, aggravated assault, and burglary. It is unlikely he will set foot outside of a prison for a very long time.
So the four kids are safe—for now. But the two daughters are still young so it is entirely possible he could regain custody if released before they reach the age of majority. It is also entirely possible that Adrian will be ordered by the Family Court judge to bring them to visit him in prison. That is common when the father is in prison, even when he is imprisoned for the murder of the children’s mother.
TAKEAWAYS
FROM THE FLORIDA SHOOTING CASE
The main takeaway from the FSU shooting case is the damaging effect on children and society when you take them away from their mother. As we have been discussing recently, children need their primary attachment figure for their healthy mental and emotional development. The presumption should be primary custody to the mother.
It is not a stretch to muse that if Christian/Phoenix had not been taken and alienated from his mother, he would not have been psychologically disturbed enough to commit such a horrific crime. Also, when children are traumatized, they are vulnerable to using substances to cope and often need therapy to process what was done to them. Some studies have shown this is a multi-billion dollar cost to society.
So, while MSM is busy blaming the stepmother since it was her guns used in the shooting, it is important to point out that it was the father who took and alienated a young boy from his mother, the judge who enabled the father, and the system that gave the judge the power to enable the father.
It is a bit of poetic justice that it is the father’s last name that will be forever associated with this horrific mass shooting after he got his son to change his name.
None of this is to excuse Phoenix’s crimes; it is to help explain them. It should be a mitigating factor that he was a victim of severe alienation from his mother. Children are not fully mentally or emotionally developed until they are at least 23, and he may have a disability that was exacerbated by losing his mother. At any rate, he will pay dearly for what he did, possibly with life in prison.
This is a good case to begin to use the word alienation if you have previously been intimidated into not using it by domestic abuse/protective parent organizations. That word is what the public universally understands. It is precisely this kind of case that will help bring public attention to the extreme damage being caused by the epidemic of judges enabling fathers to alienate children from mothers.
FROM THE ATTEMPTED MURDER CASE
This act of terror outside the family, by a male against an even more entitled male, is the only reason Adrian regained custody of her children, who are now 4 and 6. His acts of terror inside the family mattered not at all to a Family Court judge—so much not at all that his violent self was given primary custody of two very young children.
The main takeaway from this case is that this Family Court judge obviously did not need training to make the right custody decision. A high school graduate knows you shouldn’t give primary custody—or even unsupervised visits—to someone who is being prosecuted for assaulting his wife and kids, along with a history of criminality. Judges are not idiots, regardless if they have had specialized DV training or not.
Neither insufficient training nor lack of child safety laws is the problem in the vast majority of contested custody cases. Judges are deliberately switching custody to men who should not have it due to Systemic Male Entitlement.
That means the only effective solution is to get custody cases out of the Family Court system and remove judges’ power to decide custody. Because as long as judges are in charge, they will continue to deem women liars and/or mentally ill (bad or mad) and disregard abuse and unfitness by fathers.
So let’s not waste any more time or energy on activism for new laws within the Family Court system. Let’s instead fight for a new one. More in depth on that topic is in the “Down the Rights and Laws Rabbit Hole”.
Join The Women’s Coalition where we are fighting for a new system.
*CONDOLENCES TO THE VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES
IN OTHER NEWS
SISTERS IN SOLIDARITY
We had a great get together and discussion at our Forum yesterday! Thanks to all the mothers who came and all moms who care enough to engage in activism to end the Crisis.
More info: Sisters in Solidarity
DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
Info about the discrimination lawsuit
To join the lawsuit: fill out this form for the U.S. and for other countries this form.
CHAPTER 28: NEXT SECTION IS OUT!
Continuing with her direct examination of Herry, Legion makes many relevant points with her skilled questioning, despite his constant lies and assertions he does not remember. She “landed into the areas of his sexual addiction, his ordering of the sabotage to my life and career as a veterinary professor and practitioner and his failures at loving.” She gets him to admit he is not allowing any contact with the boys, he’s telling them she’s crazy, and he’s using the stepmother to do all the parenting. But he will not admit that he had repeatedly beat her—including in front of the boys.
Legion gets great satisfaction exposing the conspiracy amongst opposing counsel, the editor of the newspaper, and him to portray her as crazy to the public so as to ruin her chances in an upcoming election, her career, and decent employment. But she is tiring of his lies, his evasiveness, and his smug, male-entitled attitude on the stand. He obviously knows he is going to win, contrary to the facts and evidence, and will continue to be legally enabled to keep her precious boys completely away from her.
In the last section, Legion begins her direct examination of Herry. He is accusing her of being mentally ill as a basis for depriving her of custody, so she asks him why he would leave the kids with her for long periods of time if she were really mentally ill. But Legion does not realize yet that no matter how good she does acting in pro per or how much evidence she presents to the Family Court judge that she is a loving, caring mother and Herry is a negligent and abusive father, it will make zero difference.
CHAPTER 28 of Mother-Fucking: The Saga of One Fucked Mother begins with Act III, Part 4 of “The Opera” from Book 3. The Opera has three Acts with five Parts—one for each of the three Family Court and two Appellate Court trials. Chapter 28 covers all of Act III: Part 4: the third Family Court trial and Part 5: the second Appellate trial. This is a long chapter and will be published in newsletter-sized bites.
Dr. Blue’s novel is based on her own experience of the Custody Crisis. It uniquely conveys how Family Court judges are “mother-fucking” women—a form of systemic oppression—as protagonist Legion is systematically and methodically deprived of her children and money and reduced to “one fucked mother”.
Chapters are stand-alone interesting so you can begin reading anywhere. A Cast of Characters follows to help readers at any point. All published chapters are included in the Section: “Saga of One F**ked Mother” accessible on the top bar of the home page of Women’s Coalition News & Views. Sequential chapters are published every Wednesday so make sure to subscribe if you haven’t yet!
Subscribed
TEASERS
I could not get Herry to tell the Court, daJudge, that he had battered me and had done so repeatedly and had done so repeatedly in front of the Boys––as if only then, then is when the violence counts as something heinous, that is, only if it is done in front of witnesses or in front of witnesses who are little kids. As if only then would battering of a woman, a wife, a mother, be worth anyone’s time to sit up and take mother-fucking notice of!
Almost done with questioning because I could not get this man, Herod Edinsmaier, to speak Truth, I landed into the areas of his sexual addiction, his ordering of the sabotage to my life and career as a veterinary professor and practitioner and his failures at loving. “Isn’t it true that you helped Zane subscribe to Playboy Magazine? When he was 11 years old, a minor child, and this a crime, Herry?”
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I absolutely agree with everything said in this article, though I would like to add one comment. There's a reason there is a conflict in talking about alienation. "Alienation" is falsely used against mothers in family court when a child reports abuse by the father. This is then used to give the abusive father custody as the judge says the mother will never support a relation with the father and is "alienating" them from the father. Mothers tend to believe that children need at least some relationship with the father and will bend over backwards to facilitate this, often even when he abused her or if she fears for their safety and thus asks visitation be supervised. They rarely, if ever, try to alienate the children from their father. Abusive fathers, on the other hand, do try to alienate the children from the mother. They do this as another way of hurting the mother. Many people decide they no longer wish to stay in their marriage for many different reasons. Divorce is legal. But good parents who decide to seperate, make decisions with the best interest of any children as a top priority. They work together and co-parent appropriately. They don't use the children as weapons. In family court, mothers get falsely accused of alienating, while abusive fathers get supported in their alienation. This is why the word "alienation" has gotten such a bad rep recently. If this difference isn't understood, this problem will never be solved. Mothers need to be protected from this false accusation, while abusive fathers need to be held accountable for their abusing.
Family court judges often grant child custody to males that request it. It doesn't matter if they're abusive. Children are forced to grow up in the environment these men and complicit individuals provide. Family court judges empower men and disempower women. Patriarchy dominates family court. Children are considered male property. They are often taken from their loving mothers. Family court judges falsely deem loving mothers unfit. They endanger children. Removing children from their primary attachment figure is harmful. The damage can last a lifetime. Mothers are wrongly blamed. Family court is about male power and control. Women and children suffer. Mothers cannot protect their children in family court. Women must continue to unite and fight for a new system. A jury would give women and children a chance at justice. Family court must end. Family court judges abuse their power. They must no longer have the power to do so. Women need the power to protect their children. The best interests of a child are to be primarily with their loving mother.