MSU Shooter Carried Note Threatening NJ Schools

Relatives say Anthony McRae had ties to Trenton area
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2023 2:10 AM CST
MSU Gunman Had Note Threatening NJ Schools
This booking photo provided by Michigan Department of Corrections shows Anthony McRae. where the gunman fatally shot himself.   (Michigan Department of Corrections via AP)

Michigan State University gunman Anthony McRae was found with a note threatening two schools in Ewing Township, New Jersey, police say. Authorities in Ewing Township, which is just north of Trenton, said public schools were closed Tuesday out of an abundance of caution, though McRae killed himself after the Monday night mass shooting at MSU and is believed to have acted alone, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Police said McRae had ties to Ewing Township and "a history of mental illness," reports the New York Times. Lt. Glenn Tettemer of the Ewing Police Department said McRae, 43, hadn't lived in the area for several years.

McRae’s uncle, Luther James McRae Jr., says his nephew went to schools in Ewing and was a happy child who later had brushes with the law that "should have raised alarm bells" and "should have been addressed long ago." Police say McRae, who had no known connection to MSU, killed three students and wounded five others in two campus buildings Monday night. McRae's father says his son turned "evil" after the death of his mother in 2020. He tells the Times that his son, who had spent time in a homeless shelter in Cincinnati, had not been diagnosed with a mental illness and was not on medication.

As police sought a motive, the Lansing campus mourned the three students killed, who were all from the suburban Detroit area, the AP reports. Alexandria Verner, a junior from Clawson, was studying integrated biology and anthropology. Arielle Anderson, a junior who graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School, was "sweet and loving" and planned to be a surgeon, relatives said. Brian Fraser, a sophomore who had attended Grosse Pointe South High School, was president of Michigan State's chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. (More Michigan State University stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X