3 students killed, 5 critically wounded in shooting at Michigan State University, authorities say
(CBS NEWS) — Three students were killed and five others were critically wounded in a shooting at Michigan State University Monday night, authorities said. The suspected shooter was later found dead in Lansing of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Law enforcement officials at the university identified the suspect as Anthony Dwayne McRae, a 43-year-old man with no obvious affiliation to the school, during a news conference on Tuesday morning. McRae was neither a current nor former student or faculty member at Michigan State, said Chris Rozman, the university’s deputy chief of police and public safety.
Rozman also confirmed that all three victims who were fatally shot on Monday night, as well as the five individuals who remained hospitalized Tuesday with critical injuries, were students at MSU. Officials are not providing additional details about the students’ identities.
“There is no longer a threat on campus,” Interim Michigan State Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman said at a news conference. An earlier shelter-in-place order issued by police for the East Lansing campus was lifted.
Michigan State Police said that in addition to the three confirmed dead, five people were hospitalized. All were in critical condition, Rozman said.
“This truly has been a nightmare we’re living tonight,” he observed.
Two of those killed were at Berkey Hall on the campus and the third was shot at the MSU Union, Rozman said. Berkey is an academic building.
The suspect was located off campus in Lansing after a manhunt and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. “Our understanding is that the suspect was confronted by law enforcement,” Rozman said.
WWJ radio in Detroit reported that the suspect lives in Lansing and “investigators, including MSP Bomb Squad” members were at his home overnight some two miles from where police confronted him.
The suspect was a 43-year-old with no known affiliation with the school, Rozman said. He wasn’t a “student, faculty, staff,” Rozman noted.
Police have “no idea why he came to campus to do this tonight,” Rozman added.
A White House official told CBS News early Tuesday that President Biden had been briefed on the shooting and “spoke to (Michigan) Governor (Gretchen) Whitmer this evening about the shooting at Michigan State University. The FBI and additional federal law enforcement are already on campus to support local and state response efforts underway.”
Officials had previously described the suspect as a Black male, short, wearing red shoes, a jean jacket and ball cap, and released photos of the suspect. They said he was believed to have fled on foot.
The victims were transported to Sparrow Hospital, MSU police said.
Police said they received the first 911 calls reporting shots fired at Berkey Hall at about 8:18 p.m. They said police arrived at the scene within minutes and located several victims. Another shooting occurred almost immediately afterward at the nearby Union building and police and EMS tended to victims at that scene as well. There were no other scenes involved, police said, despite some earlier alerts referring to other buildings on campus.
There was an “overwhelming law enforcement response,” Rozman said at an earlier news conference Monday evening.
An alert sent shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time urged people to “run, hide, fight,” according to CBS Detroit.
Local state officials warned people not to go to the campus. “Please do not go to MSU right now. Yes, its hard to do when you have loved ones on campus or adjacent to the campus. But it is far too dangerous as this armed suspect is moving in the area and police attempt to take them into custody,” Michigan State Police Second District posted on Twitter.
Gov. Whitmer said in a statement that “MSU’s campus is a special place for so many, and it is now the site of another senseless act of gun violence. Parents across Michigan were on pins and needles calling their kids to check in on them and tell them they love them. It doesn’t have to be this way. … This is a uniquely American problem. … We should not, we cannot, accept living like this. … Spartans will cry and hold each other a little closer. We will mourn the loss of beautiful souls and pray for those fighting for their lives in the hospital.”
MSU said all campus activities had been canceled for 48 hours, “including athletics, classes, and all campus-related activities. Please DO NOT come to campus tomorrow.”
MSU President Teresa Woodruff said at one of the police news conferences that, “We will take two days where we will move to an emergency operation to give ourselves time to think and breathe and be together. To our faculty and staff, we will similarly provide to all of you the next two days to think and grieve and come together and the Spartan community, this family will come back together.”
Several school districts in the area canceled classes for Tuesday, CBS Detroit reported.
