DETROIT — Police officers desperately searching for the gunman on Michigan State University's campus missed him by a single minute at the Union, the second location he fired at students on the night of Feb. 13, according to an updated timeline released Friday by the university's police department.
The timeline ― which provides new details from the time of the first emergency calls to the first campus-wide alert ― comes nearly a month after the shooting that left three students dead and five critically injured.
It shows police responded quickly after the first shots were fired but also were flooded with 911 calls.
The timeline also shows law enforcement made contact with McRae in Lansing about a half hour after MSU Police and Public Safety released his photo later that night. A phone call tip about McRae's location came 17 minutes after the photo was released to the public. Authorities previously indicated that two Lansing Police Department officers made contact with McRae and asked him to put down his weapon. Instead, the accused gunman shot himself.
The department’s preliminary investigation findings show that officers entered Berkey Hall at 8:20 p.m., which is two minutes after the first call of shots fired at the academic hall came in at 8:18 p.m. According to the updated timeline, McRae then entered the nearby Union at 8:24 p.m. and the first report of a shooting at the Union came at 8:26 p.m., which is the same time McRae exited the Union and left campus. Officers missed him by one minute, arriving at the Union at 8:27 p.m.
MSU police say the first emergency alert notification was sent at 8:30 p.m. and a second alert was sent a minute after.
The first photo of the suspect was shared at 11:18 p.m. by MSU police on social media and at 11:35 p.m. the Ingham County 911 center received a call of a person matching the suspect's description walking on Lake Lansing Road near High Street in Lansing.
At 11:49 p.m., police say officers approach McRae and he shot himself.
McRae’s route once he left campus is still being reviewed and finalized by law enforcement, MSU police said.
Between the hours of 8 p.m. on Feb. 13 and 1 a.m. on Feb. 14, the post says Ingham County 911 received 2,100 phone calls, with 1,450 being 911 calls.
The update also reported that there were 3,136 radio “push to talks” ― each time an officer or dispatcher pushes the button to transmit on their two-way radio ― by police officers on the primary shared radio dispatch talk group used by MSU Police and Public Safety and the East Lansing Police Department.
"MSU Police and Public Safety is continuing to investigate this incident and will provide additional updates as the department is able," police said.
