Michigan State University reels, seeks answers to gunman's motive

The gunman who killed three students and wounded five at Michigan State University was a 43-year-old with a previous gun violation who fatally shot himself after an hourslong manhunt that ended in a confrontation with police miles from campus, officials said Tuesday.

Investigators still were sorting out why Anthony McRae fired inside an academic building and the student union shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday. The shootings led to a harrowing campus lockdown and a search for the gunman that ended roughly three hours later.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was,” said Chris Rozman, deputy chief of campus police, adding that Mr. McRae, of Lansing, was not a student or Michigan State employee.

The gunman was found with a note in his pocket indicating a threat to two schools in Ewing Township, New Jersey, where he had ties, that district’s superintendent said in a statement posted online.

Ewing Public Schools closed for the day, but it was later determined there was no threat, Superintendent David Gentile said in the statement, which was based on information from the Ewing Police Department. Mr. McRae had not lived in the Ewing area for several years, according to the statement.

The shooting came a day before the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 and is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S.

Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023, most notably in California, where 11 people were killed as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans.

In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the United States in which at least four people were killed or wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

“This is still fluid,” Mr. Rozman said. “There are still crime scenes that are being processed, and we still are in the process of putting together the pieces to try to understand what happened.”

The dead and injured in the gunfire at Berkey Hall and the MSU Union, a popular place to eat and study, all were students, Mr. Rozman said. Five remained in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital, said Dr. Denny Martin, who fought back tears during a news conference.

“Our Spartan community is reeling today,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Michigan State graduate, said at the briefing.

President Joe Biden pledged his support during a phone call, she said.

“We mourn the loss of beautiful souls and pray for those continuing to fight for their lives. ... Another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed,” Ms. Whitmer said.

Michigan State has about 50,000 students, including 19,000 who live on the suburban East Lansing campus. As hundreds of officers scoured the campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, students hid where they could Monday night.

During that time, police released a photo of the suspect, and an “alert citizen” recognized him in the Lansing area, Mr. Rozman said.

“That was exactly what we were trying to achieve by releasing that picture. We had no idea where he was at that point,” the deputy chief said.

Police confronted Mr. McRae about 5 miles from campus in an industrial area, where he killed himself, Mr. Rozman said.

Mr. McRae was on probation for 18 months until May 2021 for possessing a loaded, concealed gun without a permit, according to the state Corrections Department.

In Mr. McRae’s Lansing neighborhood, there was a large police presence overnight. Suzanne Shook said she has lived a block away from Mr. McRae for about a year.

“We never spoke to him,” Ms. Shook said. “When he would be walking or riding his bike, he was always straightforward and wouldn’t look at anybody.”

Students, meanwhile, recalled the previous night’s terror. Dominik Molotky said he was learning about Cuban history around 8:15 p.m. when he and the other students heard a gunshot outside the classroom. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that a few seconds later, the gunman entered and fired three to four more rounds while the students took cover.

“I was ducking and covering, and the same with the rest of the students. He let off four more rounds and when it went silent for about 30 seconds to a minute, two of my classmates started breaking open a window, and that took about 30 seconds to happen. There was glass everywhere,” Mr. Molotky said.

“After that, we broke out the window and I climbed out of there, and then I booked it back to my apartment,” he said. He was unsure whether gunfire hit any of the students.

Claire Papoulias, a sophomore, described on NBC’s “Today” how she and other students scrambled to escape a history class through a window after the gunman entered from a back door and began firing.

“There was a boy in my class, and he was waiting outside the window, and he was catching people and helping people down,” she said. “As soon as I fell out of the window I kind of hit the ground a little. I just grabbed my backpack and my phone, and I remember I just ran for my life.”

Ryan Kunkel, 22, was attending a class in the Engineering Building when he became aware of the shooting from a university email. Kunkel and about 13 other students turned off the lights and acted like there “was a shooter right outside the door,” he said. “Nothing came out of anyone’s mouth” for over four hours, he said.

All classes, sports, and other activities were canceled for 48 hours.

Interim university President Teresa Woodruff said it would be a time “to think and grieve and come together.”

“This Spartan community – this family – will come back together,” Ms. Woodruff said.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Ed White and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.