Footage from the Michigan State University shooting shows students fleeing the scene as they left a building on campus, many walking with their hands above their heads as heavily armed police walk in the opposite direction.
The shooting began on Monday night – three people have been killed and five are injured. Police have said that the suspected gunman died after a “self-inflicted gunshot wound”.
Police said the suspect was in contact with police before dying by suicide.
The first shots were reported to police at 8.18pm and students were initially made aware around 8.30pm. In text messages, they were told to follow the “run, hide, fight” protocol, according to The Washington Post.
The gunfire prompted a manhunt for the shooting that included hundreds of officers and led to the school’s around 50,000 students to shelter in place.
The campus is located in East Lansing, around 90 miles from Detroit. Reports of shootings came from the social science building Berkey Hall and the MSU Union not far away.
On Tuesday, University police revealed the gunman as being 43-year-old Anthony Wayne McRae. His body was found off campus.
Law enforcement said during a press conference on Tuesday that a caller’s tip led police to the shooter. Police said they haven’t established a possible motive, saying that they don’t know why he carried out the shooting.
“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point,” Chief Rozman said, adding that this would be a focus of the investigation.
McRae was wearing dark trousers, red shoes, and a denim jacket at the time of the shooting. Large parts of his face was shielded, he had clothing pulled over his mouth and a baseball hat covering some of the rest of his face.
President Joe Biden spoke to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Monday night.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted on Tuesday morning: “Last night, President Biden spoke to @GovWhitmer on the shooting at @michiganstateu. FBI & additional federal law enforcement deployed to support local and state response efforts. President Biden and the First Lady are praying for the 3 killed & others injured in East Lansing.”
Interim Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman said during a press conference on Tuesday morning that all three of this who were killed were students at the school. He noted that at least two people died and several were injured at Berkey Hall.
Law enforcement said during a press conference on Tuesday that a caller’s tip led police to the shooter and a search warrant had been carried out on a residence connected to the suspect.
Claire Papoulias, a student who survived Monday night’s shooting, appeared on NBC and CNN on Tuesday.
She told CNN that she was in the classroom that the suspect fired into, adding that some students helped save others by smashing a window and helping students climb out.
The 19-year-old psychology student was in a Cuba history class at Berkey Hall when the shooting began.
“The teacher was presenting a lesson and all of sudden I heard gunshots directly behind me. That’s when the shooter opened the back classroom door and started firing at my classmates in the back, wounding them. I smelled and saw the gunpowder,” Ms Papoulias said.
“Everyone then dropped to the floor immediately and someone started yelling ‘Shooter, everybody get down!’” she added to CNN.
She recalled to NBC’s Today that “at that moment, I thought I was gonna die. I was so scared.”
“I was sitting and my professor was lecturing and then I heard, it was either three or four, I could hear gunshots directly behind my head and I could see the smoke of gunpowder or something from the weapon firing,” she added.
“I thought I was going to die. We didn’t know where he went. Everyone was on the ground huddling, and I just looked at my classmates and told them it was going to be okay,” she told CNN.
She said McRae left the door open after firing three or four rounds. Students began “barricading” themselves in the classroom, she recalled.
“Other students tried to smash the window open so we could escape,” she said. “One student took his shirt off and tried to stop the bleeding. I heard another student yell, ‘Oh my God, my arm.’”
The students successfully smashed a window open and were able to jump out as the classroom was on the first floor.
“There was a boy on the other side of the window catching people who were jumping out the window. He stood there and risked his life to catch people,” Ms Papoulias told CNN. “If they didn’t bust open the window and barricade the door with the table then the shooter would’ve done a lot more damage and taken more lives. My classmates helped everyone and were all in it together.”
The 19-year-old told the network that she returned to her dorm where she remained until the lockdown was lifted.
“My feet hit the ground running. I forgot everything I owned because that didn’t matter. I was focused on making it out alive. I jumped out the window and I ran as fast as I could,” she said.
