My son was evil, killer’s dad says
The gunman who killed three students at a Michigan university became bitter after his mother died and “just started getting evil and mean”, his father has said.
Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, shot himself dead several hours after his attack on the Michigan State University campus on Monday in which he killed students Alexandria Verner, Arielle Diamond Anderson and Brian Fraser.
US police said on Tuesday there was no clear motive for McRae’s rampage and he was not linked to the university.
“I know everybody wants to know what the motive is. We don’t have an answer right now, that’s the honest truth,” said MSU deputy police chief Chris Rozman.
The killer’s father, Michael McRae, who lived with his son in Michigan, told NBC News his son had arrested on
been previously gun charges.
“He was grieving his mum. He wouldn’t let it go. He got bitter,” he said. “His mum died, and he just started getting evil and mean. He didn’t care about anything anymore.”
Anthony McRae refused to leave his room and quit his job after his mother, Linda Gail McRae, died suddenly on September 13, 2020, from a stroke, according to his father.
After Anthony was sentenced to 18 months of probation for possessing a loaded firearm in 2019, Michael told his son “we don’t need no guns in this house”.
“I said, ‘I hope you got rid of that gun’ – and he said, ‘Yeah, I got rid of it’,” the father said. “But he didn’t.” Thousands of students were ordered to shelter in place after shots were fired in a campus building in the early evening, leaving two students dead.
McRae then fled to the students’ union, where he killed one more student, sparking a major police operation as officers swarmed the 5000-acre campus in the city of Lansing.
“When McRae was found by police in Michigan, he had a note in his pocket that indicated a threat to two public schools,” the Township of Ewing Police Department said.