Gunfire erupted at Michigan State University on Monday, February 13, 2023, leaving at least three persons dead and multiple reported injuries, as police swarmed the main campus in East Lansing searching for a lone suspect, according to authorities and local news media.
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The deaths are in addition to five people who were injured in the Monday night shootings, campus police said.
The shootings began shortly before 8:30 p.m. at Berkey Hall, an academic building, and also ocurred nearby at the student union, a popular gathering spot, said Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of the campus police department.
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The Detroit News reported one confirmed fatality on campus, inside Berkey Hall, citing Michigan State University (MSU) spokesperson Emily Guerrant, but Reuters could not independently verify that information.
Lone suspect
"There are multiple reported injuries," MSU said on its official police and public safety Twitter feed. It later said an unspecified number of victims were being transported to a nearby hospital.
Several campus building had been cleared and secured nearly two hours after the gunfire was first reported on campus, MSU police said.
Police and the city of East Lansing, a college town near the State capital of Lansing and about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, tweeted that a single suspect, initially described as a short male wearing a mask, was at large and believed to be on foot.
Students, faculty and residents in surrounding off-campus neighborhoods were urged by authorities to "shelter in place," while police searched for the suspect.
MSU is a major public institution of higher education whose flagship East Lansing campus accounts for 50,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
