Anthony McRae, a 43-year-old convicted criminal, was the assailant at Michigan State University who shot three individuals to death and five others, according to state officials on Tuesday.
Less than nine hours after police lifted a campus-wide shelter-in-place order following the mass shooting, McRae, who was found off-campus after dying of what seemed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was identified.
McRae has a history with firearms.
He was sentenced to 18 months in state prison in November 2019 after being convicted of possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle. He was released from supervision in May 2021.
On the north side of Lansing, to the east of Capital Region International Airport, he resides in a 960 square foot house. Michael McRae, his father, is the property owner. The front driveway is blocked off by a chain link fence.
Anthony McRae recently moved in with his father, according to Megan and Tyler Bender, who live on the same block as him. They claimed that Anthony’s father, Mike McRae, is a well-known scrapper in the area.
“He’s never done any harm to anyone,” Megan Bender said. “He’s just an old man, minds his business.”
But police had been called to the residence before because of the sound of gunshots, Megan Bender said. Megan Bender said Anthony McRae would fire out of the back door of the home, she believed for target practice.
Based on where Anthony McRae was found, Megan Bender believed he was headed home. She had been listening to the scanner for most of the night and when she heard where police had said the suspect had died and later traffic indicating they were being dispatched to her street, she felt relieved Anthony McRae hadn’t made it back to the neighborhood.
Megan Bender assumed Anthony McRae was going home based on where he was discovered. She had been listening to the scanner for the majority of the night and was pleased Anthony McRae hadn’t returned to the area until she heard where police said the suspect had died and later traffic indicating they were being sent to her street.
Suzanne Shook, who also lives on the block, watched police cars descend on a home down the street Monday night after the shooting, responding to the home of the man she’s seen walking and biking down the street occasionally. She said it was a shock in a neighborhood that is usually “super quiet.”
When it’s this close to home, “it really catches you off guard,” Shook added.
Additionally, Anthony McRae had lived in Bear, Delaware, the same place as Barry Croft, the man responsible for the attempt to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
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