Police say they recovered the suspect’s body, who they believe killed three people and injured numerous others on the campus of Michigan State University late Monday night.
MSU Police Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman said the 43-year-old suspect was found off campus and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The campus-wide shelter-in-place directive was lifted just after midnight on Tuesday.
At a press conference at 12:30 a.m., Rozman said, “This truly has been a nightmare that we are living today.”
Rozman stated that the suspect was neither a student nor an employee at MSU.
Rozman said at a 1:30 a.m. press conference, “We have no idea why he came to campus to do this tonight.”
MSU police confirmed three fatalities just after 11:30 p.m., and five people were taken to a hospital in Lansing. The five patients were all listed in serious condition as of 1:00 a.m. Tuesday, according to John Foren, a spokesman for Sparrow Hospital.
They huddled together after receiving the shelter-in-place order on the MSU campus, 2023-02-13.
Rozman stated that it was unclear at this time whether or not any of the victims were MSU students or faculty.
Both Berkey Hall and the MSU Student Union, located on Grand River Avenue at the northern end of MSU’s campus not far from downtown East Lansing, were targeted during the shooting.
Rozman stated that police attempted to establish a motive for the killings on campus.
We do not know if the suspect has any connection to the university, Rozman said.
After the fact, Rozman stated, “We have no knowledge of what the motive was, and I can’t even imagine what the purpose may be.”
According to Rozman, the suspect made touch with police just before committing suicide by gunshot.
Just after midnight, police barricaded a stretch of Lake Lansing Road in the East Lansing area. The police have erected a tent nearby.
Officials from Michigan State University have announced that the shelter-in-place order has been removed, making it safe for parents to return to the East Lansing campus to retrieve their children.
Executives at Michigan State University were in shock after the massacre.
MSU Interim President Woodruff remarked at a 1:30 a.m. press conference, “We cannot allow this to continue to happen again.”
Tuesday and Wednesday classes at MSU have been canceled.
“Our hearts are with the victims and their families,” said Dan Kelly, vice chair of the MSU Board of Trustees.
MSU’s vice president for public safety and police chief, Marlon Lynch, said the campus would be treated as a crime scene for the next two days.
That it will be “business as usual” would be a lie, Lynch said. And as soon as that happens, the healing process can start.
What Sparked The Ordeal
According to university officials, the shooting began at 8:18 p.m. on the north end of campus, near Grand River and Farm Lane, in Berkey Hall.
We got several 911 calls reporting gunfire at Berkey Hall,” Rozman added. Many police officers came to the scene. We arrived minutes later and began assessing the situation. We found numerous people who had been shot there.
After that, Rozman said, police were called to the Abbot Road MSU Student Union after reports of gunfire. According to him, witnesses saw the shooter go out of the Student Union’s north entrance at the corner of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue.
Rozman remarked that “there was a tremendous response from law enforcement to campus to assist with this problem,” adding, “We tended to the victims at each of those scenes.”
The suspect was seen in a surveillance camera image published by the Michigan State Police, who characterized him as a Black male, lower in stature, wearing red sneakers, a jean jacket, and a baseball cap.
At some point, gunfire was heard at the nearby Snyder-Phillips Hall, prompting police to swarm the building with their weapons drawn. MSU police say they conducted an investigation into IM East after the incident.
Rozman claimed that other bogus reports of shooting in various buildings on campus had been made.
Rozman stated that tracing the origin of the calls would be part of the inquiry.
According to the MSU website, the College of Social Science, the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, and the Department of Sociology are all located in Berkey Hall, where the shooting occurred. MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant initially stated that one person had been killed in the shooting. As time went on, MSU confirmed the tragic loss of life for three.
Michigan State University police officers storm Phillips Hall on campus on February 13, 2023, with guns drawn.
“Many Individuals Stepped Up” In The Hospital
A total of five victims of the incident were sent to Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital, Foren added. It was not clear how they were doing, he said.
Foren claimed that as word of the active shooter situation at MSU circulated in the Lansing area, Sparrow employees either hurried to the hospital or contacted to see if they could volunteer to respond to the incident.
He said the ER did not require any additional help from the community.
In fact, “we sent most of them home,” Foren claimed. “There were many volunteers,” the team leader said.
Student and staff members of the Broad Museum, located across the street from Berkey, were observed hunkering down inside, covered in blankets, as the storm raged outside. A mother approached a journalist and asked for advice on rescuing her college-aged daughter from her residence hall. The police had sealed off the building.
Alexis Dinkins, a sophomore at MSU, was inside Akers Hall when she heard students locking themselves out and yelling, “Go. Go. Go.” She continued, saying that she and other students began to leave Akers.
In their exit from the residence hall, they were stopped by police, who directed them to the closest bus stop.
After leaving Akers, Dinkins told a group of students, “We don’t feel comfortable anywhere.” She found it to be a “terrifying” circumstance.
Malaysia Newbern, a freshman and sociology major, said as she stood outside IM East, “All I could do was just think about, ya know, nothing and everything at the same time.”
MSU police reported that the MSU Union and the residence halls of Berkey, Brody, Snyder-Phillips, Mason, Abbot, and Landon had been secured.
When police blocked Grand River between Division and Abbot, a police aircraft repeatedly passed above campus. Numerous agencies, including those from nearby jurisdictions like the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Meridian Township Police Department, were there.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, text messages were sent to students on campus.
There were urgent warnings to “secure in place” right now. It’s “Fight, Hide, or Run.”
Before the shooter’s location, MSU police announced the cancellation of all campus activities for the next 48 hours and urged the public to stay away from the university.
Fourteen months prior, a lone shooter at Oxford High School killed four pupils and injured six more, plus a teacher. Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time, admitted responsibility for the shooting in October and is currently awaiting a hearing at which a judge will decide whether or not to sentence him to life in prison.
The Cowles House on campus became the command center for law enforcement. The FBI and the Michigan State Police joined the MSU campus police.
Someone hollered from a dorm room window at 9:40 p.m., “Did you capture him yet?”
Nearly thirty fire engines, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles were lined up on Grand River Avenue in downtown East Lansing, outside the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum.
Two armed police officers escorted about one hundred students along the sidewalk at another time.
On Monday night, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan tweeted, “I’ve been briefed on the shooting at Michigan State University.” Authorities from the Michigan State Police (@msupolice), as well as those from nearby jurisdictions and the emergency services, are currently at the scene. Come on, Sparta, let’s embrace each other tonight. Whenever we have new information, we will share it with you.
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