Business owners worry East Lansing student experience changed forever
EAST LANSING — Tom “Dewey” Bramson was at the Harrison Roadhouse Monday night, about 1 mile from the MSU Union when police and Michigan State University sent out alerts about an active shooting on campus.
"We immediately went into a shelter-in-place with all of our guests and all of our staff," said Bramson, who manages the eatery.
Staff and customers at the three other restaurants he manages in East Lansing — the Riv, Rick's American Cafe and Beggar’s Banquet — did the same.
Then they waited.
"We had a number of people pull into our parking lot. I'm sure, probably, anxious parents waiting to get to their kids, but all the entrances to the university were blocked and we're obviously right on the corner of campus," Bramson said.
Nearly four hours later, after police had lifted a shelter-in-place notice, Bramson and other staff members immediately started reaching out to every employee at all four eateries, many of them MSU students, to ask if they were safe. As far as he knows they all are, he said.
The only scenario to which Bramson could compare the fear and anxiety of the last day were the riots on MSU's campus in the late 1990s.
Monday's shooting will change downtown East Lansing, at least in the short term, he said.
"I think in general, there'll be a heightened sense of awareness on everybody's behalf," Bramson said. "I think we're still, obviously, in the very early stages of what this looks like. We're going take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, and do the best we can in finding resources to help people get through this."
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Harrison Roadhouse, the Riv, Rick's American Cafe and Beggar’s Banquet all will be closed "until at least Thursday," he added.
Tuesday morning, several more downtown East Lansing businesses announced plans on social media to close for the day.
Mike Krueger, who owns both Crunchy's and The Peanut Barrel, said both East Lansing restaurants will be closed "at least" through Tuesday.
"We all need the day to process this, at least," he said.
Staff working at the two businesses Monday night "were pretty shaken up" by the shooting, the lockdown and the uncertainty that followed.
Krueger, who lives in East Lansing, had just left Crunchy's Monday night minutes before police issued warnings and advised people to shelter in place.
He spent the evening talking with managers at both eateries, monitoring the exterior cameras at both properties and listening to the police response over a scanner app.
"We've always kind of watched the news, watching these events happen everywhere else but here and everybody thinks that, 'No, it's not gonna happen here, it will never happen at Michigan State,' and then it does," Krueger said. "I think it's going to bring everybody together, but I think it's also going to have everybody on high alert all the time, which leads to anxiety and leads to all kinds of other issues."
For Monica Gauthier, who with her husband Andrew Gauthier owns Groovy Donuts, a bakery with locations in East Lansing and Williamston, the impact on students is heartbreaking. She graduated from the university in 2013.
"I can't imagine being a student on campus right now and being able to experience the full college experience right now with knowing that that happened," Monica Gauthier said.
Both of the couple's bakery locations are closed until Friday, a decision made before the shooting occurred to prepare for Fat Tuesday orders, Andrew Gauthier said.
Andrew is an MSU alumnus himself and spent Tuesday talking with fellow graduates about how the shooting could change campus for current students and the community.
"I had a lot of conversations with a lot of former MSU classmates of mine and one of the things we remarked upon is how often we would be walking around campus at that time of night, whether we'd be going to the Union for something to eat or over to the library or coming to and from Grand River for dinner or something like that," Andrew Gauthier said.
"In the four years we were there, I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe, and I feel awful for the students," he said. "I don't know if they're going to be able to have that same experience and that's really a shame."
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Business owners worry East Lansing student experience changed forever
