Michigan State shooting – updates: Murdered victims named as chilling details around Anthony McRae revealed

On Tuesday, University police revealed the gunman as being 43-year-old Anthony Wayne McRae. His body was found off campus after hundreds of police officers were called in to aid the operation while he was still on the loose.

Police said he died because of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that he was in contact with law enforcement before dying by suicide.

The first shots were reported to police at 8.18pm and students were initially made aware around 8.30pm. In text messages, they were told to follow the “run, hide, fight” protocol.

The gunfire prompted a manhunt for the shooter that included hundreds of officers and led the school’s around 50,000 students to shelter in place.

The campus is located in East Lansing, around 90 miles from Detroit. Reports of shootings came from the social science building Berkey Hall and the MSU Union not far away.

Interim Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman said during a press conference on Tuesday morning that all three of this who were killed were students at the school. He noted that at least two people died and several were injured at Berkey Hall.

Chilling accounts around Monday’s mass shooting continue to emerge.

Mike and Natalie Popoulias told the Detroit Free Press that they sped their vehicle from Jackson to MSU campus, after their daughter, attending a class in Berkey Hall, informed them about hearing gunshots.

“I heard somebody get shot, mom. It’s terrifying. I could smell the gunpowder,” their daughter, a sophomore studying psychology, texted the family.

She told them she jumped out of the window from what they believe is a first-floor room, and made it back to her residence hall that was in lockdown Monday night.

On Tuesday, University police revealed the gunman as being 43-year-old Anthony McRae. His body was found off campus.

Law enforcement said during a press conference on Tuesday that a caller’s tip led police to the shooter. Police said they haven’t established a possible motive, saying that they don’t know why he carried out the shooting.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point,” Chief Rozman said, adding that this would be a focus of the investigation.

McRae was wearing dark trousers, red shoes, and a denim jacket at the time of the shooting. Large parts of his face was shielded, he had clothing pulled over his mouth and a baseball hat covering some of the rest of his face.

Interim Deputy Police Chief Chris Rozman said during a press conference on Tuesday morning that all three of this who were killed were students at the school. He noted that at least two people died and several were injured at Berkey Hall.

Law enforcement said during a press conference on Tuesday that a caller’s tip led police to the shooter.

They said on Tuesday that a search warrant had been carried out on a residence connected to the suspect.

The suspected gunman accused of killing three and injuring five at Michigan State University (MSU) has been named as 43-year-old Anthony McRae.

The gunman had opened fire on Monday night at a residential hall and a student union building, triggering panic and chaos as students evacuated the premises.

Mr McRae was named as the shooter on Tuesday morning. He died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound as police closed in on him.

Authorities previously said the suspect had no known affiliation with the university and the motive for the shooting was unclear.

The first shots were fired at Berkey Hall at 8.18pm on the campus’s north side, before further gunshots were heard at the Snyder-Phillips Hall, around 650m away.

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Michigan State University student Claire Papoulias appeared on NBC’s Today on Tuesday morning recounting her experience of the previous evening.

“Someone was yelling that there was a shooter, and everybody needed to get down on the ground. At that moment, I thought I was gonna die. I was so scared,” she said.

“I was sitting and my professor was lecturing and then I heard, it was either three or four, I could hear gunshots directly behind my head and I could see the smoke of gunpowder or something from the weapon firing,” she added.

Claire Papoulias, a student who survived Monday night’s shooting, appeared on NBC and CNN on Tuesday.

She told CNN that she was in the classroom that the suspect, Anthony McRae, 43, fired into, adding that some students helped save others by smashing a window and helping students climb out.

The 19-year-old psychology student was in a Cuba history class at Berkey Hall when the shooting began.

“The teacher was presenting a lesson and all of sudden I heard gunshots directly behind me. That’s when the shooter opened the back classroom door and started firing at my classmates in the back, wounding them. I smelled and saw the gunpowder,” Ms Papoulias said.

“Everyone then dropped to the floor immediately and someone started yelling ‘Shooter, everybody get down!’” she added to CNN.

The 43-year-old man accused of killing three and wounding five in a shooting at Michigan State University before turning the gun on himself was found with a note detailing threats to two other schools, authorities say.

Police identified the gunman in Monday’s shooting as Anthony McRae. He is not believed to have any connection to MSU.

On Tuesday morning, reports claimed that a note was found with McRae’s body after he killed himself. The note allegedly indicated threats to two New Jersey schools.

Meanwhile, it emerged that McRae had been living with his father, had firearms convictions and was known for firing weapons on the property, according to neighbours.

Megan Bender, who lives on the same street as McRae and his father, Michael, in Lansing -- just over five miles from the MSU campus - told The Detroit News that the suspect would fire out of the back door of the home, she believed for target practice, and police had previously been called to the address.

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Claire Papoulias, a student who survived Monday night’s shooting, appeared on NBC and CNN on Tuesday. The 19-year-old psychology student was in a Cuba history class at Berkey Hall when the shooting began.

“I thought I was going to die. We didn’t know where he went. Everyone was on the ground huddling, and I just looked at my classmates and told them it was going to be okay,” she told CNN.

She said McRae left the door open after firing three or four rounds. Students began “barricading” themselves in the classroom, she recalled.

“Other students tried to smash the window open so we could escape,” she said. “One student took his shirt off and tried to stop the bleeding. I heard another student yell, ‘Oh my God, my arm.’”

The students successfully smashed a window open and were able to jump out as the classroom was on the first floor.

“There was a boy on the other side of the window catching people who were jumping out the window. He stood there and risked his life to catch people,” Ms Papoulias told CNN. “If they didn’t bust open the window and barricade the door with the table then the shooter would’ve done a lot more damage and taken more lives. My classmates helped everyone and were all in it together.”

The 19-year-old told the network that she returned to her dorm where she remained until the lockdown was lifted.

“My feet hit the ground running. I forgot everything I owned because that didn’t matter. I was focused on making it out alive. I jumped out the window and I ran as fast as I could,” she said.

A survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting took to TikTok on Monday night to share her outrage at once again having to experience a mass shooting – this time as a student at Michigan State University.

Jackie Matthews is a rower with the Spartans, the university’s athletics department.

“So the reason I'm making this video right now is because it is almost 1am and I am currently directly across the street from where the shootings in Michigan State occurred,” she said in the video. “I am 21 years old, and this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through.”

“Ten years and two months ago I survived the Sandy Hook shooting. And when I was crouched in the corner in school in Newtown, Connecticut on 12/14/12, I was hunched in the corner with my classmates for so long that I actually got a PTSD fracture in my L four and L five in my right lower back,” Ms Matthews added.

“I now have a full-blown PTSD fracture that flares up anytime I am in a stressful situation, or anything occurs that's aggressive like that. The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible,” she said. “My heart goes out to all the families and the friends of the victims of this Michigan State shooting.”

“But we can no longer just provide love and prayers. It needs to be legislation. It needs to be action. It's not okay. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent. I'll forever be Sandy Hook strong, and forever be Spartan strong,” she concluded.