2023 MSU shooting: Police work to determine motive after eight shots killed three at East Lansing campus. Suspect ID

East Lansing, Michigan — A shooter at Michigan State University killed three students and wounded five, prompting an hour-long search as frightened students hid in classrooms and cars. The shooter eventually committed suicide, police announced early Tuesday.

Authorities don’t know why 43-year-old Anthony McRae targeted the campus. According to campus police, he was neither a student nor an employee and had no affiliation with the university.

The shooting began at 8:18 pm Monday night at the university building known as Barkey Hall and then moved to the nearby student union. Police said the shooter opened fire in one building, officers began arriving, and investigators pushed out pictures of the suspect, so they crept into another building.

A student inside the building where the first shots were fired said he couldn’t get a good look at the suspect.

Watch: Authority ID MSU Shooter

Dominique Morocchi said, “When the first gunshot rang, I booked it in the very corner of the class. I was sitting right next to the door he came in. Literally the first two “Thank God my flight response battle began as he walked in and crouched down with me booking it to the other side of the class.” He came in and shot three or four times in our classroom.”

He said some of his classmates broke the window to get out.

Students hid as much as possible as hundreds of police searched the East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Police announced the man’s death four hours after the first shooting was reported.

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Campus Police Interim Deputy Commissioner Chris Rozman said: “This has been a real nightmare.

Ryan Kunkel, 22, was attending an engineering building class when he noticed a gunshot in his college email. Kunkel and about 13 other students turned off the lights and acted as if “there was a shooter right outside the door,” he said.

For more than four hours, “nothing came out of anyone’s mouth,” he said.

Watch: Officials provide update on MSU shooting

“I wasn’t ready to accept that this was actually happening next door,” Kunkel said. And the students are injured.”

The shooting in Michigan is the latest in what has become a deadly New Year in the United States, where dozens have died in mass shootings so far in 2023. Popular with older Asian Americans dance hall.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there will be more than 600 mass shootings in the United States in 2022, killing or injuring at least four people.

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

Campus Police Rozman said two people died at Barkey Hall, one died at MSU Union and five were in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.

Hospital officials said at a news conference Tuesday morning that four had undergone surgery and all five were in critical condition.

Police eventually confronted the shooter after receiving information as to where he was. He later died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” at around 11:35 p.m., police said.

“We don’t know why he came to campus tonight to do this. It’s part of our ongoing investigation,” the vice president said.

Ted Jimbo said he was walking to his dorm when he came across a woman with “a lot of blood on her.”

“She told me, ‘Someone came into our classroom and started shooting,'” Jimbo told The Associated Press. “Her hands were completely bloody. It was her pants. was on her shoe, and she said, ‘That’s my friend’s blood.'”

Jimbo said the woman went out to find her friend’s car, but he returned to the SUV and covered himself with a blanket for three hours.

During the search, WDIV-TV meteorologist Kim Adams, whose daughter attends Michigan State University, told viewers that the students were exhausted by hours of storytelling.

“They were hiding in a dark room with all the lights off,” Adams said.

Watch: Police provide update on MSU shooting

Aidan Kelly, a third-year student who lives half a mile east of campus, said he locked the door and barred the window “just in case.” Sirens were blaring incessantly and helicopters were hovering overhead.

“It’s all very scary,” Kelly said. “And all these people are texting me wondering if I’m okay. It’s overwhelming.”

Michigan has approximately 50,000 students, including 19,000 who live on campus. All classes, sports and other activities have been canceled for 48 hours.

Some schools and offices in East Lansing will also be closed.

Teresa Woodruff College interim president said it would be a time to “think, grieve and unite.”

“This Spartan community, this family, will come back together,” said Woodruff.

The Detroit Division of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency and the FBI are on the scene.

President Joe Biden spoke with Whitmer about the shooting.

“President Biden and First Lady are praying for the three who were killed. and so on, injured in East Lansing,” a White House press secretary tweeted.

Michigan officials provide update after deadly shooting

Mass shooting in Michigan is the latest in what has been the deadliest year in the US so far

As of 2023, dozens have died in mass shootings.

Tuesday marks 15 years since the shooting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

Five people were killed and 17 wounded when gunmen opened fire on the campus.

A bell will ring outside Coal Hall at 3:06 PM to commemorate the tragedy.

It also marks five years since the Parkland school shooting in Florida. A gunman killed 14 students and 3 faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Kusmer reported from Indianapolis. Associated Press writer Ed White and Detroit’s Corey Williams contributed to this article.

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.