EAST LANSING, Michigan. – The man who opened fire at Michigan State University killing three students and wounding five ultimately committed suicide, police said Tuesday.
Police identified him as Anthony McRae, 43. He said he took his own life with a gun several kilometers (miles) from campus during a confrontation with officers.
Authorities had previously said he was not a student or employee and had no ties to the university.
The shooting began Monday night in an academic building and continued in the student center, a place where many gather to eat or study. As hundreds of officers swarmed the campus in East Lansing, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, students sought shelter elsewhere. Four hours after the first shots were fired, police announced the man’s death.
“It’s truly a nightmare what we experienced tonight,” said Chris Rozman, acting deputy chief of the campus police department.
Dominik Molotky said he was in a Cuban history class around 8:15 p.m. when a gunshot rang out outside the classroom. He told ABC News that seconds later, a gunman came in and fired three or four shots as students tried to take cover.
“I was ducking and covering myself and so were the other students. He fired four more times and when it got quiet for about 30 seconds to a minute, two of my classmates started breaking a window. There was glass everywhere,” Molotky said. He added that he climbed out the window and ran to his apartment, and did not know if there were any injuries in the classroom.
The shooting is the latest in what has become a deadly start to the year. Dozens of people have been killed in massacres so far in 2023, most notably in California, where 11 people were gunned down while celebrating the Lunar New Year at a ballroom crowded by older Asian Americans.
Rozman said two people were killed in the Berkley Hall building and another in the student center. Five people were in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.
Police eventually confronted the assailant, who died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Rozman said.
“We have no idea why he came to campus to do this tonight. That’s part of our investigation,” he added.
A note with a threat to two schools in Ewing Township, N.J., where he had ties, was found in McRae’s pocket, that district’s superintendent said in a statement posted online.
Ewing Public Schools suspended classes for the day, but it was later determined there was no threat, Superintendent David Gentile said in his statement, based on information from local police. It had been years since McRae had lived in the area, he added.
According to Rozman, “This is still fluid. We are processing the crime scenes and putting the pieces together to understand what happened.”