EAST LANSING, Mich. — A gunman suspected of fatally shooting three students at Michigan State University on Monday night and wounding five others had a note on him that included threats against multiple institutions and a claim that he had a team of 20 individuals who would help him carry out his plans, police said Thursday.
The handwritten note led police to believe Anthony McRae, 43, felt "slighted," though officials stressed they are far from defining a concrete motive that led to the mass shooting at Berkey Hall and the MSU Union.
MSU Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman said police are still trying to determine McRae's connection to the university and the other locations listed in the note as well as what motivated the rampage.
"He just felt slighted," said Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez, who noted that McRae had some issues with businesses that had asked him to leave, but didn't indicate where those businesses are. "That’s sort of what the note indicated."
Two students were shot dead at Berkey Hall, while another was killed at the MSU Union. They were Arielle Anderson, 19, of Harper Woods; Brian Fraser, 20, of Grosse Pointe; and Alexandria Verner, 20, of Clawson.
Rozman said McRae had two 9 mm handguns and multiple rounds of ammunition with him in a backpack.
"We have learned that they (the handguns) were purchased legally by the shooter, but they were not registered," Rozman said.
McRae said nothing to police officers as they approached him late Monday night near Lake Lansing Road and Larch Street approximately 3.8 miles northwest of campus, near his home, before taking his own life, Gonzalez said.
Responding to a tip, Lansing police officers approached McRae in their vehicles, exited and, from about 20 feet away, ordered him to show his hands, the State Police official said.
At that point, McRae pulled out a handgun and shot himself without saying a word to the officers, Gonzalez said.
Guns, ammunition and a note
In all, McRae had two 9mm handguns, eight loaded magazines, two empty magazines and a pouch with 50 loose rounds, Gonzalez said. Police also found two local bus tickets and a two-page handwritten note.
Gonzalez said the note contained threats against MSU, a school district in New Jersey, some local businesses and a Meijer warehouse in nearby Delta Township where he used to work. He said McRae claimed in the note to be leading a group of 20 individuals who would participate in his plans.
Gonzalez, when asked whether a church also was threatened in the letter, said he couldn't remember.
McRae’s father told police his son was a loner with no friends who stayed in his room, “leading us to believe there was no way he was going to have a team like that,” Gonzalez said about how police ruled out a team of shooters.
Police recovered from McRae's home a cellphone, journals, writings and fired 9 mm casings, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said McRae appears to have legally purchased the gun, meaning he completed a purchase permit that includes a background check for prior felonies but failed to register the guns with a local police department as required by law.
Gonzalez said police are investigating the two bus tickets located in McRae's pocket and the possibility that "maybe he had a regular route that he took, or maybe he had an intention to go someplace else.”
"We did show that his whole route was all walking all the way back," Gonzalez said, noting police had done a canvass of surveillance images to determine his travel away from the university.
Rozman said police are looking into McRae's mental health history. New Jersey police in a statement Tuesday about the threats made to Ewing, New Jersey, schools indicated McRae had a history of mental health issues.
"There appears to be indications that that may be the case," Rozman said. "It’s going to be difficult to confirm that."
Lansing Police Chief Ellery Sosebee said his department had not been called to McRae’s home for reports of gunshots, as neighbors alleged Tuesday. He said the department reviewed their call logs to double check after those reports surfaced.
Lansing police responded to McRae’s home on Feb. 5 for a welfare check, Sosebee said, but it was not for McRae. He said Lansing police officers’ contact with McRae was confined to a 2005 larceny complaint, three traffic violations between 2006 and 2007, and a 2019 arrest for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
McRae was initially charged with a felony but was allowed to plead down to a high court misdemeanor, allowing him to legally purchase firearms at the conclusion of his probation in 2021.
Asked to respond to former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon’s decision to allow McRae to plead down in the 2019 case, Sosebee noted Siemon was no longer in that role. The 66-year-old Siemon retired Dec. 31, halfway through her second four-year term in the office, but didn't give a reason for her departure other than planning "to move on to the next stage of my life."
“We would all hope that a prosecutor would uphold the law as it is written,” Sosebee said. “There’s always room for some type of discrepancy or discretion; however, that one will be scrutinized for a long time, I’m sure.”
Update on students
Four of the five students wounded in the shooting, meanwhile, remain in critical condition but some "are showing signs of improvement," said Teresa Woodruff, the university's interim president. In the middle of Thursday's news conference, officials indicated one wounded student's condition was updated to stable.
Woodruff said the university is resuming operations Thursday, though Berkey Hall, where two students were fatally shot, will remain closed for the rest of the semester. She said the Student Union is being evaluated and a decision on reopening will be determined later. Students are set to return to classes on Monday.
"We know, as a campus, that hard work lies ahead of us," Woodruff said.
And even though it took several hours for police to locate McRae, Rozman defended the department's handling of the situation.
"People may question the timing," said Rozman, "but this was an ongoing, complex investigation."
McRae, whom neighbors in Lansing described as a "hell-raiser" who practiced target shooting out his back door, also had a recent history with firearms. And his father, Michael McRae, 66, told The Detroit News that he had encouraged his son to get rid of his guns.
State and federal laws allowed McRae to purchase a firearm soon after his probation for a gun crime ended in May 2021, 20 months before he was accused of going on Monday night's deadly shooting rampage, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.
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