Police at the scene of a shooting at Berkey Hall on the campus of Michigan State University on February 14, 2023.
Detroit (USA) – Three students died and five others were injured on the Michigan State University campus during an evening rampage by a gunman who later turned the gun on himself, local police said. She identified the attacker as a 43-year-old man with no known ties to the university. The university campus was previously searched by hundreds of police officers while frightened students hid in the dark, the AP agency wrote. Today, in response, President Joe Biden again called for a ban on assault rifles.
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The shooting was reported around eight o'clock in the evening local time (today 02:00 CET) from two locations on the campus in the city of East Lansing in the US state of Michigan. University police then sent out emails and cell phone alerts to students around 9:30, informing them of the danger and urging them to take shelter in a safe place immediately. Footage from the scene showed people fleeing from one of the buildings with their hands above their heads and armed policemen intervening.
News of the alleged perpetrator's death came about four hours after the initial warning to students. University police said they found the suspect dead off campus and in the following hours identified him as a 43-year-old man named Anthony McRae. The state police, in turn, reported that investigators searched his residence at night.
Authorities later said they had “no idea” why the gunman killed the students. However, the police found a note in his pocket that “suggested that there was a threat to two public schools in New Jersey,” writes Reuters. McRae's 85-year-old neighbor described the dead suspect as a “real hellhound” who often fired a gun in his home.
Police previously described the gunman as a small black man who likely acted without an accomplice. McRae reportedly had no connection to East Lansing University, was not a student or employee.
“It's truly a nightmare that we're living through tonight,” said University Police Officer Chris Rozman. “We have no idea why he came to campus tonight,” he added in reference to the alleged perpetrator.
All those killed and injured were students at the school known by the acronym MSU, authorities confirmed at a morning briefing. According to the spokesman of the nearby hospital, the five injured remained in a serious condition in the morning and it was not possible to estimate how their health condition will develop.
The shooting on Monday night first shook the Berkey Hall building, where the social sciences are taught, and immediately afterwards the MSU Union space, which is used for students to eat or prepare independently. Rozman said that both buildings were open to the public at the time of the attack. Police searched the campus building by building following reports of the shooting, armored vehicles and ambulances were on the scene, and a helicopter was circling the campus.
“I was shaking the whole time,” 19-year-old Sophia Nedoff, who hid like thousands of other students during the search for the shooter, told The New York Times (NYT). “I blocked the door of my roommate's bed and turned off the light,” said Julian Alonso. The first-year student reportedly ran into several police cars while returning to his dorm from shopping, after which he hid in a closet.
This afternoon (evening CET), President Biden again called for the ban in response to the attack assault rifles. “Gun violence is destroying our communities, it's every American family's worst nightmare. There really is no logical justification for the free carrying of assault rifles with magazines holding dozens of rounds,” Biden said today at the opening of a speech to the National Association of Districts (NAC).
The incident in East Lansing was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have claimed the lives of dozens of people in the United States this year, AP writes. Last year, the US experienced more than 600 attacks that left four or more people dead or injured, he adds, citing the Gun Violence Archive. The NYT, in turn, recalled earlier attacks on college campuses or the fact that Monday's attack came a day before the fifth anniversary of the massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where a former student killed 17 people.
“The students killed then would have been the same age as many of the students MSU,” noted the newspaper.
