Anthony Dwayne McRae, 50, was shot in the head with a concealed weapon at Michigan State University on Oct. 17, 2005
Years before Anthony Dwayne McRae killed three Michigan State University students and critically wounded five others, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon – a felony that would have prevented him from being able to buy a gun if he were convicted.
A two-page note found in McRae’s backpack begins, “Hi, my name is Anthony McRae” and goes on to say, “I will be shooting up MSU,” law enforcement officials who have access to the note told CNN.
Police in a New Jersey town said that they found a history of mental health issues in McRae, who was accused of planning to target schools.
McRae, who grew up in New Jersey, had claimed in the letter that there were “20 of him” who will carry these shootings out, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
After his mother died from a stroke, the suspect became bitter, isolated and “evil angry” as his father told CNN.
Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel – who said she has sons at MSU who were left shaken – told CNN many unanswered questions remain about the gunman’s history.
An individual who recently had a gun offense and was off supervision is located in the same area. I would like to know why he had his probation extended a couple of times, I know he had it extended, but he wasn’t sure why.
The campus community is reeling from the hours of terror that unfolded Monday night as police serve search warrants and look into the background of the shooter.
The attack at MSU left students dead and wounded across two different campus buildings and sent terrified students running, barricading in classrooms, or jumping out of windows as hundreds of officers converged on the sprawling university in search of the gunman.
The Hunt for the Shooter at a Michigan State University Mass Shooting on Wednesday at 11:15pm ET/PRNews
The suspect was arrested after three hours after the first shots were fired. Police said the tipster pointed them to the gunman’s location 17 minutes after they released surveillance photos of him.
CNN said there have been at least a dozen school shootings this year. The first shooting at a college or university of the year occurred at Michigan State.
The residence connected to the suspect was the site of a search warrant that authorities are not saying if it was the shooter’s residence.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/michigan-state-university-mass-shooting-wednesday/index.html
When a student hid inside a band hall door to a store: “You can’t do that,” says McRae
“Ever since my wife died, my son began to change,” Michael McRae said. He was getting more and more bitter. Angry and bitter. So angry. Evil angry … He began to put himself in a better place. His teeth were not staying in place. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolf man.”
East Lansing’s mayor said that the current generation has grown up with this many times over. They live with it all the time.
When gunfire broke out at Oxford High School in November 2021, Emma hid inside the band hall of Oxford High School where others had barricaded the door. The students eventually fled out of an exterior door to a store in the area, her father Matt Riddle said.
“The teacher was presenting a lesson and all of sudden I heard gunshots directly behind me. When the shooter opened the classroom door, he started shooting at my classmates from the back of the classroom. Papoulias said he smelled gunpowder and saw it.
Students then smashed open a window to help everyone escape while others tended to the wounded, with one student using his shirt to try and stop the bleeding, Papoulias recalled.
Billy Shellenbarger of the public schools in Clawson described Verner to him as everything that a student would want to be.
The Fraternity of a Black Hole and a Student with Multiple Assisting Strikes Back against Their Parents, Their Families and Campuses
Fraser served as the president of the Michigan Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, the fraternity said in a statement. He was a leader and a great friend to his brothers, the Greek community and the people he interacted with on campus, the fraternity said.
Anderson was studying to be a doctor, according to her aunt. Davis wrote that her life was taken by a coward who didn’t understand the enormity of the tragedy he was about to cause. “No parent should have to bury their children.”
“How is it possible that this happened in the first place, an act of senseless violence that has no place in our society and in particular no place in school?” Dean said. “But then, it touched our community not once, but twice.”
Thousands of people gathered around a rock bearing the words “Always a Spartan” to remember three students who were killed in Monday night’s shooting.
The governor told the crowd that they shouldn’t have to live like that. “We shouldn’t have to subconsciously scan every room for an exit, go through the grim exercise of figuring out who our last call would be to.”
“Our campuses, churches, classrooms and communities should not be battlefields,” the governor told the grieving crowd that included students who had also lived through another mass shooting at a Michigan high school just 15 months ago.
At Wednesday’s vigil, MSU’s head men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo told the students to allow themselves to show their emotions as they process the tragedy.
The State University Mass Shooting at the University of Michigan on Monday evening: A Public Comment on the Shooting of a Black Hole by McRae
Law enforcement officials say that the businesses listed on the letter have not been proven to be lead by the man who was dead and that he does not deserve to be called leader of any team.
While police investigate what connection the shooter may have had to the locations, FBI profilers are analyzing the letter, according to the law enforcement officials. The note doesn’t say why the locations are targets or list grievances, officials said.
At the federal level, a misdemeanor conviction does not preclude someone from buying a gun. In Michigan, it is a low-class felony or high-class misdemeanor to be charged under the law.
McRae then went on to purchase two guns in 2021 in Michigan, a law enforcement source said. The source said there were two guns: a Hi-Point 9mm pistol and a Taurus pistol.
The weapon used in Monday evening’s tragedy at the University of Michigan wasn’t clear yet if it was purchased legally or not, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“Somebody who is having mental health issues, somebody who just had been illegally possessing a gun, and look how easy it was for him to obtain a weapon even in the wake of all that, something’s gotta change,” Nessel said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/michigan-state-university-mass-shooting-thursday/index.html
The Three Shooting Students in Spartan High School Remnants, Inc., on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2012, at 5:00pm PDT
The speakers at Wednesday’s candle light ceremony remembered the three students killed in the shooting. They remembered their smiles, their kindness, their sense of humor and the dreams they had.
“The time away from work for her family, the long recovery road ahead, and the subsequent medical expenses to care for Guadalupe, will place both an emotional and financial a burden on her family,” the organization said on Facebook.
There won’t be a return to normal. This event has changed what that will feel like for us forever. But that’s okay,” Kovach said. “If there’s one thing I know and love about Spartans is that in times of need we come together.”
Michigan State Police provided security at the vigil to allow the university’s police to grieve, the department said, adding, “We are all healing together.”