The gunman who killed three Michigan State University students and left five others in critical condition may have had plans to target two schools in New Jersey, according to police.
Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43 – who had no known ties to the university – opened fire Monday evening on two parts of campus, MSU police said.
He was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When McRae was found by police in Michigan, ‘he had a note in his pocket that indicated a threat to two Ewing Public Schools,’ the police department in New Jersey said Tuesday.
MSU police confirmed McRae had a note, and Ewing police said local schools no longer faced a threat.
A student who survived the Michigan State University mass shooting that left three dead says her heroic classmates risked their lives to save others.
Claire Papoulias said that one student even waited behind to help catch people who were jumping out the window to escape from the gunman.
‘And I will never forget the screams of my classmates,’ she said.
‘They were like screaming in pain [and] for help.’
Papoulias was in history class on Monday evening when she heard multiple gunshots behind her head.
Claire Papoulias was in history class when ‘all of sudden I heard gunshots directly behind me,’ she told CNN on Tuesday.
‘The shooter opened the back classroom door and started firing at my classmates in the back, wounding them. I smelled and saw the gunpowder,’ Papoulias said.
‘I thought I was going to die.When the gunman stepped out of the classroom – leaving the door wide open – some students bravely smashed a window and helped others jump out of the first-floor classroom, Papoulias said.
‘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,’ Papoulias said.
‘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.’
University police identified the slain students as junior Arielle Anderson, sophomore Brian Fraser and junior Alexandria Verner.
Anderson and Fraser graduated in 2021 from high schools in Grosse Pointe, school superintendent Jon Dean said Tuesday.
A vigil for Fraser was held Tuesday evening at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe.
