A day after the Super Bowl brought joy to so many Americans, the U.S. reeled from another mass shooting.
A Michigan State University campus shooting left three students dead and five students wounded after a 43-year-old man with no known connection to the university opened fire on the campus shortly after 8 p.m. on Monday night, according to reports.
The police have released the names of two of the deceased victims, sophomore Brian Fraser and junior Alexandria Verner. The five victims that were wounded are currently in critical condition.
Anthony Dwayne McRae was identified as the shooter. According to Detroit Local 4 News, he entered the Berkey Hall building and fired off the first shots. Then he proceeded to MSU Union, a popular place for students to eat and study, and let off the second round of shots.
Dispatchers received the first calls at 8:18 p.m. local time about the shots fired in Berkey Hall. Police officers arrived on the scene within minutes and encountered two students killed from gunshot wounds and several injured. Officials from the university sent out an alert at 8:31 p.m. to let students know there was an active shooter on campus.
The timeline of events spread out over a four-hour window and the university sent out several alerts during that time frame.
McRae was spotted at 11:35 p.m. when a 911 caller spotted someone matching the description after the photos were released of him from the video surveillance. The police confirmed the shooter dead at 12:20 p.m. after a confrontation with authorities that ended with him taking his own life in a city adjacent to Lansing, miles from campus.
Michael McRae, father of the shooter, told NBC News that his son became evil and mean after his mother’s death in 2020.
“He was a mama’s boy. He loved his mom. They were tight. His mom was like his sister,” Michael McRae said.“He was grieving his mom. He wouldn’t let it go. He got bitter, bitter and bitter. His mom died, and he just started getting evil and mean. He didn’t care about anything anymore.”
McRae was reportedly not a faculty member or student, and police are still searching for a motive. According to CNN, McRae pleaded guilty to a firearm charge in 2019 and was discharged from that probation in May 2021.
“We are unsure of any affiliation that the suspect had to the university,” said Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman of Michigan State University Police. “We have absolutely no information about what the motive was and I can’t even imagine what the motive may be.”
The MSU mass shooting occurred on the eve of the 2014 Parkland school massacre that claimed 17 lives. It is the reported 67th mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year, according to Gunviolence.org. There were more than 600 mass shootings in which at least four people died or were injured in 2022.
An MSU student involved in the Sandy Hook mass shooting also had to relive a horrific tragedy all over again. The Sandy Hook survivor mentioned that she is exactly 10 years and two months removed from the horrific event.
“The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have lived through is incomprehensible. My heart goes out to all the families and friends of the victims of this Michigan State shooting,” the Sandy Hook survivor said in her TikTok post. ” We can no longer provide just love and prayers. There needs to be legislation. There needs to be action. It’s not OK. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.
Michigan State has canceled all on-campus events including classes for the next two days.
