At Michigan State University on Monday night, a shooter opened fire, leaving three people dead and five more injured. After an hours-long manhunt that drove terrified students to shelter in the dark, the shooter then shot himself dead miles away.
Four hours after shootings erupted at Berkey Hall, an academic structure, and later nearby at the MSU Union, a well-liked gathering place for eating and studying, police made the man’s death known early on Tuesday.
Chris Rozman, the temporary deputy chief of the university police, described the situation as really a nightmare we’re facing today.
Numerous police officers searched the East Lansing campus, which is located about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, looking for the culprit, who was described by authorities as a short Black man wearing a ball hat, red shoes, and a jean jacket.
Police confronted the 43-year-old guy outside of campus before he killed himself with a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to Rozman.
His name, the nature of the gun, and what the police discovered at the site were not immediately disclosed. According to Rozman, the man had no connection to Michigan State and was neither a student nor an employee.
We don’t know why he came to campus tonight to carry out this act. Our continuing inquiry includes that, the deputy chief added.
The shooting at Michigan State is the latest in a violent start to the year in the United States. In major shootings so far in 2023, dozens of people have died, most notably in California, where 11 people were killed as they celebrated the Lunar New Year at a club frequented by senior Asian Americans.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the United States in 2022 that resulted in at least four deaths or injuries.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer bemoaned, “This is a uniquely American problem.”
Rozman reported that five individuals were in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital, and that two people were killed at Berkey and another at the MSU Union.
Police said that Berkey and the neighboring residence halls had been secured around 10:15 p.m.
Ted Zimbo claimed that as he was making his way to his dorm, he came across a woman who had “a ton of blood on her.”
Zimbo told The Associated Press, “She informed me, ‘Someone came in our classroom and started firing. “Her hands were drenched in blood from head to toe. Her shoes and jeans both had it. It’s my friend’s blood, she remarked.
According to Zimbo, the woman drove off to retrieve a friend’s car, and he went back to his SUV in a parking garage and covered himself with a blanket to conceal for three hours.
When Ryan Kunkel, 22, learned about the shooting from a school email, he was taking a class in the Engineering Building. He claimed that Kunkel and a group of 13 other students pretended there was a shooter just outside the door while turning out the lights.
For more than four hours, “nothing came out of anyone’s mouth,” he claimed.
I wasn’t prepared to acknowledge that this is actually happening right next to me, next door. It’s near my college, stated Kunkel. I’m meant to be coming here to learn, grow, and become a better person. Instead, students are suffering injuries.
The hours-long drama had worn out students, WDIV-TV meteorologist Kim Adams, whose daughter attends Michigan State, informed viewers before the shooter was discovered dead.
Adams stated, They’ve been hiding, with all the lights out in a dark room.
Junior Aedan Kelley said he closed his doors and covered his windows just in case, because his home is less than a half-mile (one kilometer) east of the university. There were continuous sirens, and a chopper flew overhead.
Everything is pretty terrifying, said Kelley. And then I get all these texts from folks asking whether I’m OK, she continued.
About 50,000 students attend Michigan State, 19,000 of whom reside on campus. For 48 hours, all school, sports, and other events were postponed.
Teresa Woodruff, the interim president of the institution, said it would be a moment to contemplate, grieve, and come together.
Discussion about this post