A few weeks before Michigan State University's mass shooting, the accused gunman said he was beaten up by a group of students in downtown East Lansing, a tipster told university police a day after the campus tragedy.
This detail, revealed in a 91-page preliminary MSU police case report released to The Detroit News through a public records request, offers context to what possibly occurred leading up to the Feb. 13 shooting. The revelation comes a month after MSU police said in an April 27 update that they had found "no conclusive motive" behind 43-year-old Anthony McRae's actions to open fire at three locations at the university, killing three and wounding five others, before taking his own life.
Surveillance videos showed Anthony McRae bought ammunition from a Dunham's sporting goods store at the Lansing Mall about three hours before the Feb. 13 shooting at Michigan State University.
Included in the report is an interview by MSU Sgt. David Isabell on Feb. 14 with an unidentified man who came to the police station and said he knew McRae, whom he referred to as "Tony." The man said he met McRae in 2018 at a community gathering of residents working to improve greater Lansing communities. McRae lived in Lansing.
The man, whose name was redacted, told police that he last saw McRae three weeks earlier.
"(He) stated that Tony seemed to be agitated," the report says. "Tony told (him) that he had been beaten up by students. Tony didn't indicate if the students were MSU students. Tony did not advise what caused the altercation between him and the students."
The alleged incident occurred in downtown East Lansing in an area the witness said McRae frequented "to collect cans for money on the weekends."
"(He) believes the indicated altercation with students may have been the motive behind the shooting on 2/13/2023," according to the police report. "He also recalls having conversations with Tony about mass shootings in the past. These conversations were not recent in nature. (He) believes Tony had an infatuation with school shootings/shooters."
MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant on Thursday declined comment on the development.
The report also supplies more information about the movements of McRae before he opened fire in Berkey Hall and the MSU Union, killing 19-year-old Arielle Anderson of Harper Woods, 20-year-old Alexandria Verner of Clawson and 20-year-old Brian Fraser of Grosse Pointe and severely injuring the five other MSU students.
McRae searched on Google and watched videos of MSU tours and school shootings before the massacre. He purchased ammunition from Dunham's Sports on the same day as the shooting, according to the report.
Warrant for Google searches
The police report included McRae's Google searches that were obtained by authorities with a search warrant.
On Dec. 20, around 4 p.m., McRae eight times visited the website of "Hi Point Firearms," a Mansfield, Ohio,-based firearms manufacturer also known as Strassell's Machine Inc., which describes itself online as "your source for affordable handguns and carbines."
McRae also conducted nearly a dozen searches for "Dunhams Sports," "dunhams east lansing" and "dunhams lansing mall lansing mi" around midnight on Dec. 29, the police report shows.
Google also provided police with McRae's history of YouTube views from December to February.
Two days before the MSU shooting on Feb. 11, McRae searched and viewed numerous videos of "tours of MSU's campus, killer documentaries, school shooting videos, arsons and hypnosis," the police report shows.
"Other searched and watched videos were documented on various other days in the provided timeframe related to 'killer' videos," the report says. "Other searched terms that should be noted include 'people that shot up colleges' and 'mass killings in colleges.'"
"In addition, on February 8, 2023, account history through YouTube revealed searches for 'the bomber' and 'the nail bomber.'"
Surveillance video shows ammo purchase
MSU police previously reported that McRae had alcohol and marijuana in his system on Feb. 13, and the latest police report reveals what he drank.
University police interviewed an employee at Gene's Quik Shop in Lansing, when they reviewed video footage showing that he had come to the store around 2:32 p.m. on Feb. 13. The employee remembered McRae had bought a pint of Arrow blackberry flavored brandy and said it was unusual that he bought alcohol. The employee said McRae frequented the store several times a week and usually bought "cigarettes, cat food and a 12 pack of Coke/Pepsi," according to the report.
Police obtained search warrants on Feb. 15 and Feb. 17 for surveillance videos from Dunham's Sports in the Lansing Mall.
The surveillance videos in the report are not dated. But MSU police department spokeswoman Dana Whyte confirmed Thursday to The News that both surveillance videos were taken on Feb. 13, the day of the shooting.
The first surveillance video shows that McRae entered Dunham's at 3:38 p.m. He spoke to an employee, went into a restroom and then walked around the store. He left the store at 3:46 p.m.
The second video showed McRae going back into Dunham's at 4:48 p.m. He walked to the section of the story where ammunition is located. He left the area, then returned. An employee opened the ammunition case at 4:50 p.m.
After four minutes, McRae walked away from the ammunition case and left the store. He appeared to go to the store across the hall, the police report says.
The employee took two boxes of ammunition and put them under a register near the exit. McRae returned to the store at around 5 p.m., returned to the ammunition area, then went to the register where the ammunition was placed.
"He pays for the ammunition with cash, and exits the store just before (5:04 p.m.)," the police report says.
That same day, according to a previously released police timeline, McRae took a bus to MSU's campus and got off at the Grand River/Berkey Hall bus stop at 7:19 p.m. An hour later, at 8:18 p.m., Ingham County 911 received the first call of shots fired at Berkey Hall.
On Feb. 21, police interviewed by phone a Dunham's employee who took the payment from McRae. But that employee did not remember anything about McRae.
MSU police have previously said McRae had 252 rounds in his possession.
McRae had two handguns in his possession that he had purchased legally but had not registered, MSU police have said.
He only discharged one of the weapons, a Taurus G3 9mm handgun, shooting it at least 18 times on Feb. 13, police concluded, after finding 14 bullet casings in Berkey Hall, three bullet casings in the Union building and one bullet casing outside of the MSU Human Ecology Building, where police believe McRae fired one shot while walking from Berkey Hall to the union.
MSU police also interviewed by phone on Feb. 28 a Dunham’s employee who let McRae in the bathroom on Feb. 13.
She described him as “normal” but then went on to describe him as “maybe a little slow, handicapped,” the report says. Pressed to explain, she said that he spoke to her in a “delayed” manner.
“She added she had an ‘eerie’ feeling when she saw his picture on TV and thought it was the person she let use the restroom,” according to the police report.
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