Gunman searched campus shooting videos before Michigan State mass shooting, reports show
LANSING — The Lansing man police said carried out the mass shooting on Michigan State University's campus in February watched online videos about campus shootings and other violent topics in the days before the incident, according to police reports.
On Feb. 11, Anthony McRae searched for or watched YouTube videos about school shootings and documentaries about killers and arson, according to Michigan State University Police and Public Safety Department reports that detail results of search warrants sent to Google.
Those warrants also showed he viewed videos of MSU campus tours.
University police obtained warrants for internet searches from McRae, 43, from December to February, which included searches for Dunham's Sports, where police reports indicate he legally purchased ammunition. The name of the store had not been previously reported. A message was left seeking comment.
The reports indicate MSU police obtained additional search warrants, but the returns were not included in the documents released following a public records request.
MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant declined to comment for the story.
University police have previously said the gunman did not have any personal or professional connection to the university and did not apply to the school for employment in recent history.
The reports also reveal that police found Brian Fraser, one of three students killed in the shooting, on the floor of the first-floor kitchen area of the MSU Union. The location had not been previously reported.
In April, MSU Chief of Police Chris Rozman said the investigation, including search warrants to Facebook and Google, could take months. Authorities believe he acted alone when he killed three students at Berkey Hall and the MSU Union on Feb. 13 before killing himself when he was approached by police in north Lansing. Rozman said police will continue to investigate whether anyone helped him, even unknowingly.
The shooter had two 9 mm handguns, nine magazines and extra rounds on him when found by police. Both were legally purchased but not registered, Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez said in February. The gunman had one loaded magazine in a jacket pocket, eight in his backpack and a pouch with 50 loose rounds.
The police reports released Wednesday evening also detail police efforts to piece together the man's movements leading up the shooting, from witness interviews to store surveillance video. In April, police disclosed much of that timeline.
MSU police said the shooter exited a bus at the Grand River Avenue/Berkey Hall bus stop at 7:39 p.m. and left the Union and campus about 8:26 p.m. The police reports show a Capital Area Transportation Authority bus driver identified the shooter as a passenger who was on the bus when relieved by another driver at the Dunham's store on Michigan Avenue. That driver estimated the shooter exited the bus at the Radisson Hotel downtown about 8:53 p.m.
Officers approached him about 11:53 p.m. near Lake Lansing Road and High Street in Lansing, where he shot himself, police have said.
Following the shooting, MSU has started making campus security upgrades, including installing about 1,600 door locks across campus and the first major upgrade to its video surveillance capabilities in more than a decade, a project recommended to the university in July 2022.
Reporters Sheldon Krause and Mark Johnson contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at 517-377-1026 or mjmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Gunman searched campus shooting videos before Michigan State mass shooting, reports show
