2023 Michigan shooting: Suspect killed after three killed, five injured in MSU attack

“There are three confirmed deaths,” police said at the Michigan State University shooting. “This is in addition to the five victims who were transported to the hospital.”

Police are seeking witness accounts to help them piece together the sequence of events and investigate Monday night’s mass shooting.

The FBI, also involved in the case, said informants can contact the agency at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

A gunman opened fire Monday night at Michigan State University, killing three people and wounding five more, before killing himself miles away after an hours-long manhunt that forced frightened students to hide in the dark.

Students were released from a night of confinement after the gunman allegedly died of a self-inflicted wound. Campus activities, however, will remain suspended for the next 48 hours.

Aidan Baldwin, a 19-year-old freshman from Waterford who was sitting in a pickup truck with his uncles, told the Wall Street Journal that he spent most of the night locked in a bathroom with a roommate, calling friends to check in on them, monitoring news and letting parents know he was safe.

“The first half hour was fine, but after two or three hours, it got quite stressful. It felt more real,” he said. Responding to reports of the gunman’s death, Baldwin said: “This is going to sound bad, but I felt kind of relieved, just that we were able to move.”

Local television news footage taken during the door-to-door search showed students walking past heavily armed police outside campus buildings in the cold night air, arms raised above their heads in a ritual “sniper” evacuation. active” that has become common in US schools. campuses.

Alexis Dinkins, an MSU sophomore who was inside Akers Hall, an on-campus dormitory, told the Detroit News that she heard people barricading the doors and shouting, “Go, go, go” as the incident unfolded.

As she and others fled the dormitory, they encountered police who told them to go to a nearby bus stop.

“We don’t feel safe anywhere,” she told the Detroit News, as she stood with a group of students on the campus sidewalk after leaving Akers. She described the situation as “terrifying”.

Ryan Kunkel, 22, was attending a class at the Engineering Building when he learned of the shooting via email from the university.

Kunkel and about 13 other students turned off the lights and acted as if “there was a sniper outside the door,” he said.

“Nothing came out of anyone’s mouth” for more than four hours, he said. “I wasn’t ready to accept that this is really happening next door, like next to me. It’s on my campus,” said Kunkel.

“This should be a place where I’m arriving, learning and improving myself. And instead, students are hurting themselves.”

The two Michigan State University (MSU) buildings where the shooting took place last night were accessible to the general public, police said at their news conference.

According to the police briefing, at least two victims were killed in Berkey Hall and one in the MSU Union building not far from campus.

MSU Vice President of Public Safety and Police Chief Marlon Lynch said responding to the shooting was a “monumental task” given the size of the campus.

“This is part of the monumental task. We have areas accessible to the public,” he told CNN.

“The task itself is that we have 400 buildings on campus and over 5,300 acres and part of the process in the response that we’ve had is that we’ve been able to break it down and organize it, be methodical about the search process and get evidence and share how it comes through. But with a university of our size and with the areas for which we are responsible, this becomes a task.”

Michigan State University Acting President Teresa Woodruff said the school would move to emergency operations within the next 48 hours, adding that this is the time intended for students, staff and faculty “to think, mourn and stand together” after a ” day of shock and disgust”. ”

“We are devastated by the loss of life,” said Woodruff. “Our campus suffers, we will all suffer. We will change with time. We cannot allow this to keep happening again.”

Coping resources will be available from 9 am Tuesday at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center at 819 Abbot Road, it said. Lansing State Journal.

Ted Zimbo said he was walking to his residence when he found a woman with a “ton of blood on her”.

“She told me, ‘Someone came into our classroom and started shooting,’” Zimbo told The Associated Press. “Her hands were completely covered in blood. She was in pants and shoes. She said, ‘It’s my friend’s blood.’

Zimbo said the woman left to find a friend’s car while he got back into his SUV in a parking lot and covered himself with a blanket to hide for three hours.

The Michigan shooting is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the US.

Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023, most notably in California, where 11 people were killed while welcoming the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian-Americans.

In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the US in which at least four people were killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

“This is a uniquely American problem,” lamented Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.