EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Police said Tuesday that the gunman who killed himself hours after shooting three students at Michigan State University was 43-year-old Anthony McRae.
Police also say five people who are in critical condition on Tuesday are also students.
The shooting began Monday night in an academic building and later moved to the nearby student union, a popular meeting place where students eat or study.
McRae shot himself miles from campus while being attacked by police.
THIS IS A HATE NEWS UPDATE. AP’s backstory follows below.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A gunman who opened fire at Michigan State University killed three people and wounded five, sparking an hours-long manhunt as frightened students hid in classrooms and in cars. The shooter eventually killed himself, police said Tuesday morning.
Officials do not know why the 43-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, targeted the campus. He was not a student or employee and had no affiliation with the university, according to campus police.
The shooting began Monday night in an academic building and later moved to the nearby student union, a popular meeting place where students eat or study. As hundreds of officers searched the East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, students hid wherever they could. Four hours after the first shots were reported, the police announced the man’s death.
“This has really been a nightmare that we’re living through tonight,” said Chris Rozman, acting deputy chief of the campus police department.
Dominik Molotky said he was studying Cuban history around 8:15 p.m. when he and fellow students heard gunshots outside the classroom. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that seconds later, the gunman walked in and fired three or four more shots as the students took cover.
“I dropped down and covered myself, and so did the rest of the students. He gave four more knocks and when he was silent for about 30 seconds to a minute, two of my colleagues started to open a window, and this went on for about 30 seconds. There was glass everywhere,” Molotky said.
“After that I broke the window and got out of there and then booked them back into my flat,” she said. He was not sure if any of the students had been shot.
Ryan Kunkel, 22, was taking a class in the engineering building when he learned of the shooting from a university email. Kunkel and 13 other students turned off the lights and acted as if “there was a shooter right outside the door,” he said.
“It didn’t even come out of anybody’s mouth” for more than four hours, he said.
“I wasn’t ready to accept that this was actually happening in the neighborhood,” Kunkel said. “This should be a place where I come, learn and improve. And instead the students are hurt”.
The shooting is the latest in what has become a deadly New Year’s Eve in the United States. Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023, most notably in California, where 11 people were killed while celebrating the Lunar New Year in a ballroom. popular among 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 injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
“This is a uniquely American problem,” lamented Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Rozman, of campus police, said two people were killed at Berkey Hall and another at MSU Union, while five people were in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.
Police eventually confronted the shooter, who later died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Rozman said.
“We have no idea why he came to campus to do this tonight. This is part of our ongoing investigation,” the deputy chief said.
Ted Zimbo said he was walking to his dorm when he encountered a woman with “a ton of blood on her.”
“He told me, ‘Someone came into our classroom and started shooting,'” Zimbo told The Associated Press. “His hands were completely covered in blood. It was on pants and shoes. He said, “It is my friend’s blood.”
Zimbo said the woman went to look for a friend’s car while he returned to his SUV and threw a blanket over her to hide for three hours.
Michigan State has approximately 50,000 students, 19,000 of whom live on campus. All classes, sports and other activities have been canceled for 48 hours.
The university’s interim president, Teresa Woodruff, said it would be a time for “reflection, grieving and coming together.”
“This Spartan community — this family — will come back together,” Woodruff said.
Kusmer reported from Indianapolis. Associated Press writers Ed White and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this story.
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