MSU shooter was previously arrested on felony gun charges

Authorities on Tuesday named 43-year-old Anthony McRae as the man who shot and killed three people and wounded five more at Michigan State University on Monday night. 

McRae was found dead off-campus from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was identified less than 9 hours after police lifted a campus-wide shelter-in-place order after the shooting took place, reports the Detroit News. 



Records show that McRae was known to the police. In 2019, McRae was charged with carrying a concealed handgun without a concealed carry permit. He was charged with a felony that carried a potential penalty of five years in prison. McRae had an encounter with police on June 7, 2019, where police asked him if he had any weapons on him. McRae admitted that he did and that he did not have a concealed weapons permit.

“He advised the handgun was registered to him,” a court document about the incident said. “He bought it late March at Capital Discount. He was currently trying to obtain a concealed weapons permit."

McRae was also charged with possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, which is a misdemeanor. McRae would go on to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge and the felony charge was dismissed by prosecutors. 

"We have received numerous requests on this matter and are working to respond to these as accurately and expeditiously as possible under the circumstances," said Scott Hughes, spokesman for the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office, told the Detroit News.

McRae was given a 12-month probation sentence in November 2019. In October 2020 he was given another 6 months of probation on his sentence, as to allow him to complete the terms of the probation order. His probation ended in May 2021. He was barred from having a weapon "of any type" during his probation.

McRae lived in a home owned by his father Michael McRae in north Lansing, Michigan. A neighbor told the Detroit News that McRae was a "hell-raiser."

"I knew he lived at that house because there was constant trouble there," said Paul Rodney Tucker, who claims to have heard gunshot target practice from the home last summer. 

"I told my dad it was a semi-automatic pistol," Tucker said. "Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. It wasn’t firecrackers."

Other neighbors also say they heard gunshots coming from the house. Megan and Tyler Bender told the outlet that McRae's father was "just an old man," but noted that Anthony would fire shots out the backdoor for target practice.