Three people were killed, and five others were gravely injured in a shooting at Michigan State University on Monday evening, prompting a search and shelter-in-place orders that lasted for hours until the suspect died of an alleged self-inflicted gunshot injury.
The attacker opened fire on two different areas of campus, turning the massive school of more than 19,000 students into a crime scene and sending scared students running and hiding as hundreds of cops in tactical gear surrounded the school, a picture all too familiar to many Americans.
“We are relieved to no longer have an active threat on campus, while we realize that there is so much healing that will need to take place after this,” informed Chris Rozman, the interim deputy chief of the MSU police.
Statistics from the non-profit Gun Violence Archive demonstrate that this attack was the 67th mass shooting in 2023 – with four or more people wounded or killed, not including the shooter – and occurred one day before the 5th anniversary of the mass firing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
A White House official said President Joe Biden was informed about the Michigan State shooting before speaking with Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
“The FBI and their colleagues are going through the history of this person to try to understand what his motivations were, to try to understand what brought him to this moment in this community at this time,” CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe informed. “This community is struggling to understand why they are the latest in what is a uniquely American experience, and understanding and experiencing a mass shooting in their midst.”
At 8:18 p.m. ET, bullets were initially reported coming from the direction of Berkey Hall, an academic facility on the northern end of campus. Rozman said officers arrived at the premises within minutes and discovered many gunshot victims, including two fatalities.
Almost shortly after that, he added, a third death was recorded in the student union building almost shortly after that.
Rozman said that at least five persons were rushed to the hospital from Michigan State, and all were in severe condition.
Hours after the first gunshots rang out, the suspect “was contacted by law enforcement off campus,” and “it does appear that that suspect has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Rozman reported.
Police reported receiving multiple false 911 calls from various spots on campus claiming gunfire in the hours before they located the perpetrator.
