Oxford High School shooting survivors are among MSU students targeted in latest mass shooting: ‘Can’t believe this is happening again’
Several survivors of the Michigan State University shooting narrowly escaped a rampage that claimed the lives of four Oxford High School students just 15 months ago.
A gunman identified by police as 43-year-old Anthony Wayne McRae opened fire at the MSU’s East Lansing campus just before 8.30pm on Monday night, killing three and seriously wounding five others.
Students received a text alert from the university telling them to “secure in place immediately”, and to “run, hide, fight” after shots erupted inside Berkey Hall and the MSU Union, popular dining and study areas.
A shelter-in-place order was lifted four hours later after police located the gunman, who they said died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Survivors of Monday night’s mass shooting who were also students at Oxford High School when Ethan Crumbley murdered four classmates in November 2021 told how the latest shooting resurfaced feelings of terror.
Andrea Ferguson told the ClickonDetroit news site that her daughter and several of her friends had now been through two school shootings.
She said her daughter had just left class when she began getting texts about an active shooter, and was “unbelievably terrified” as the gunman stalked the campus for several hours.
“I have to say, once the reality kicked in, she knew what to do — and that’s what’s important is that the kids know what to do,” Ms Ferguson told the news site. “It’s really, really surreal to have to worry about this, and to know exactly what to do.”
Another parent, Jennifer Mancini, told the Detroit Free Press that her daughter had been retraumatised after experiencing her second mass shooting event in just over a year.
Ms Mancini told the news site that her daughter had lost two close friends in the Oxford High School shooting.
“She said that she had PTSD. She said she can’t believe this is happening again,” Ms Mancini told the Free Press.
Dagmar Gross wrote on Twitter that her nephew was sheltering in place next to where the gunman was roaming, just as he had when Crumbley was shooting children in the class next to his in November 2021.
Ms Gross, a medical writer, said there were “many” Oxford students at MSU, including older siblings of those who were present during the shooting.
She said in a subsequent tweet that she had been trying to convince her nephew to move to Canada in order to escape gun violence.
“Will pursue this more so now,” she added. “His words: “Active shootings - this is my life now. It’s normal, everyday”
Crumbley was just 15 years old when he murdered four students and wounded seven others with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun at the school in Oxford Township, about 80 miles east of East Lansing, on 30 November 2021.
Last October, he pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder and terrorism.
Another MSU student who said in a post on TikTok that she had survived the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012 demanded action on gun control.
“The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have lived through is incomprehensible,” the user, whose handle is @Jmattttt, said in a TikTok. “We can no longer just provide love and prayers, there needs to be legislation, there needs to be action.”
Furious lawmakers said it was past time to act on passing harsher gun control laws.
“I cannot believe I am here again doing this 15 months later,” Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said during a news conference on Tuesday. “I am filled with rage that we have to have another press conference about our children being killed in schools.”
