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More details have emerged about the suspected shooter who killed three students and critically injured five others at Michigan State University, the Washington Post reports.
On Monday (February 13) night, Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, targeted two buildings at Michigan State University's East Lansing campus, located about 90 miles from Detroit. Before the shooting, McRae had no ties to the university. The motive behind the attack remains unclear, according to police.
Following the shooting, McRae died of a self-inflicted gun wound, police said.
On Tuesday (February 14), police in Michigan and New Jersey said McRae had a note in his pocket indicating threats against multiple schools in Ewing, N.J., where he has family ties. Public schools in Ewing were closed Tuesday "out of an abundance of caution."
The 43-year-old had “a history of mental health issues," according to police.
He was previously arrested in 2019 for carrying a loaded firearm without a permit. Years after the arrest, Mcrae "kept lying" about owning a gun and shooting it in his backyard, his father, Michael Mcrae, his father, told the Post.
Michael McRae said his son bought a gun sometime after his 2019 arrest but refused to admit he had it in the house. After hearing gunshots in his backyard, the father confronted his son, but Anthony Mcrae told him it was fireworks, he said.
“I told him to get rid of the gun,” Michael McRae told The Post. “He kept lying to me about it and told me he got rid of it.”
“He would go outside to shoot, and I would see casings on the ground, and he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s not me, Dad.’”
Michael McRae said Anthony had been "depressed and overly stressed out" since his mother's death in 2020, staying in his room "like a turtle" for hours at home.
“He never let me in the room to show me the gun,” the father said. “If he showed it to me, I would have put it in the garbage.”
The five students wounded in Anthony's alleged attack remain in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.
Michael McRae said he offered apologies to the families of the victims and hopes they can “forgive my son for what he’s done.”
Anthony was “a good kid and beautiful person who got along with everyone,” the father said, noting that he wished he would've gotten help for his son even though the suspected shooter told him he was fine.
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