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Why Are People Furious About The 'FSU Shooting Starbucks Video'? The Clip Showing A Person Sipping Starbucks While Walking Past A Shooting Victim Explained

On April 17th, 2025, a mass shooting rocked Florida State University, leaving two dead and several injured. Amid the flood of devastating news and graphic footage, one clip struck a particularly raw nerve online.

A short, jarring video of someone casually sipping Starbucks while walking past a bleeding victim ignited a firestorm of outrage across social media. Here's how a few seconds of video managed to enrage the internet almost as much as the tragedy itself.
What Is The FSU Shooting Starbucks Video?
The "FSU Shooting Starbucks video" first appeared online on April 17th, hours after the shooting. In the short clip, a person films a young woman bleeding on the ground next to a footpath and then casually turns the camera to show the Starbucks drink in their own hand, even taking a sip as they stroll past.
The woman who was walked by and filmed by an individual who was sipping a Starbucks latte during a sh**ting at Florida State University appears to be alive.Thank goodness.Footage is going viral of a person sipping coffee as they filmed a victim of the FSU sh**ting.According… pic.twitter.com/BwLr9HUG7S
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 17, 2025
The video quickly went viral, partly because no one knows who the Starbucks-holder is. Some internet racists also latched onto the fact that the person appears to be Black, fueling additional waves of ugly commentary alongside the wider outrage over their behavior.
How Did Internet Users React to the FSU Starbucks Video?
Reactions were swift and brutal. User @doublecupdm blasted the videographer with a furious tweet that earned over 160,000 likes. Others chimed in: @zeemarston called the Starbucks moment a "perfect summary" of modern apathy, while @kingdean86 even offered a $200 reward for identifying the person.


Some internet users took the opportunity to showcase their own casual cruelty, as seen in a post by @TheRoyalSerf. The tweet shows the same FSU Starbucks scene but "Ghiblified":knowyourmeme.com/memes/studio-ghibli-ai-generator, a reference to a recent AI image trend.

What Happened at the FSU Shooting?
The shooting on FSU's campus when Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student and son of a local sheriff's deputy, opened fire using his mother's old service handgun. Two people were killed and six others were injured before Ikner was shot and apprehended by police after refusing to surrender. Thankfully, despite the chaos and confusion, first responders were able to quickly tend to many of the victims.
For the full history of the FSU Shooting Starbucks Video, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.