On Tuesday, survivors and community members of the Michigan State University mass shooting were still processing the tragedy.
Police sought a motive, survivors told their near-death experiences, and politicians blasted the mayhem and offered condolences. A doctor wept as he totaled up the latest casualties – three dead, five injured, all students targeted by yet another suspect with an unknown grievance and a pistol.
Andrea Ferguson, whose daughter survived the 2021 massacre at Oxford High School and is now a student at Michigan State, is all too acquainted with the post-chaos dance after the subsequent mass killing.
According to Ferguson, it was like experiencing Oxford again, where four classmates were killed during their senior year of high school. “It was all so surreal,” she added.
It was also the second time that Jackie Matthews, a 21-year-old senior at Michigan State University, carried out a fatal mass shooting. In her hometown of Newtown, Connecticut, a shooter armed with an assault rifle killed 20 first-graders and six teachers when she was 11.
Matthews, who recalls being on lockdown at Reed Intermediate School, the closest school to Sandy Hook, stated that there will always be something so traumatic regardless of age.
Meanwhile, in response to Tuesday’s tragedy, students and faculty painted The Rock, a prominent landmark on the MSU campus, black. Along with “How many more?” and “Stay Safe, MSU,” red writing was scratched onto the rock’s surface.
Interim Deputy Chief of the Michigan State University Police Chris Rozman remarked, “This truly has been a nightmare that we are living tonight.”
University police reported that all three victims were from the suburbs of Detroit. Clawson’s Alexandria Verner, Grosse Pointe’s Brian Fraser, and Grosse Pointe’s Arielle Anderson, also a junior, made up the trio.
According to NBC News’ school shooting tracker, Monday’s atrocity was the second school shooting this year. In addition, it occurred on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which claimed the lives of 14 students and three teachers.
Rozman claimed that the suspect, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae, was not associated with MSU and that McRae committed himself as police closed in.
The police have not determined a reason for the crime. In contrast, Michael McRae, the suspect’s father, told NBC News that after his mother’s death two years ago, his son became “evil and hateful” and retreated into isolation.
The campus shooting at Michigan State resulted in the cancellation of all events, including sports and school, for two days. On Tuesday, we asked everyone on campus to remain home.
The university said the East Lansing Hannah Community Center would provide counseling services to students at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
According to NBC News sources, President Joe Biden and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer spoke on Monday night. They offered their prayers to all the victims’ families, the people of East Lansing, and all the Americans affected by gun violence.