Michigan State student describes chaos during mass shooting that left three students dead

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Good evening, and welcome to the "NewsHour."

  It's happened yet again, a burst of gun violence wiping out lives, seemingly at random. Monday night's attack at Michigan State University left three students dead.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Five others were critically wounded before the gunman fatally shot himself.

  That left investigators faced with finding a motive and a campus community in shock and grief.

• Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI):

  Our Spartan community is reeling today.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, an MSU alum herself, mourned the loss of life.

• Gov. Gretchen Whitmer:

  Another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Today, as students coped with the aftermath of Monday night's mass shooting at Michigan State University, officials released new details on the gunman.

  Police say 43-year-old Anthony McRae was found with a note indicating threats to two schools in New Jersey, where he had ties. Those schools were closed today. Officials say the shooter seen on a surveillance recording holding what appeared to be a pistol had no affiliation with MSU. He'd been charged with a weapons violation in 2019, but did not serve prison time.

  The gunman's father told The Washington Post he lied about having a firearm inside their house and firing the gun in his backyard, a neighbor reportedly describing the shooter as a real hell-raiser. The gunman opened fire last night shortly before 8:30 inside an academic building and then later at a student union.

  Officers raced in as students poured out, leaving thousands of students in lockdown for hours.

• Dominik Molotky, Michigan State University Student:

  My legs are still shaking.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Dominik Molotky says he came dangerously close to the gunman.

• Dominik Molotky:

  The shooter came in our room and shot three to four times. Once he shot those rounds, we waited about 30 seconds to a minute. And there was silence. So we started breaking open one of the windows.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Officials today released the names of the three victims, junior Arielle Anderson, an aspiring doctor, Alexandria Verner, a junior known as a tremendous athlete, and sophomore Brian Fraser, whose family disk arrived him as a light in their lives.

  And, this morning, Sparrow Hospital's chief medical officer reported five people still in critical condition.

• Dr. Denny Martin, Interim President, E.W. Sparrow Hospital:

  We had general surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, neurosurgeons.

  Didn't get a lot sleep last night. Sorry.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: Our hearts are with the students and the families of Michigan State University.

• Geoff Bennett:

  President Biden today.

• Joe Biden:

  It's happening far too often in this country, far too often. While we gather more information, there's one thing we do know to be true. We have to do something to stop gun violence ripping apart our communities.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The attack came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Parkland Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman murdered 14 students and three staff members.

  Since then, mass shootings have continued at a vicious frequency. The Gun Violence Archive reports more than 67 this year across the U.S. That's more than two every day.

  We're joined now by a student at Michigan State University, Eleanor Hoss, who had to shelter in place for hours when the gunman opened fire on campus

  Eleanor, thank you for being with us.

  And you last night were at a rooftop bar. You were celebrating a friend's birthday. And this bar was across the street, as I understand it, from the student union. And you witnessed this entire thing transpire.

  What did you experience?

• Eleanor Hoss, Michigan State University Student:

  So, actually, I arrived like 10 minutes late. So I got there around 8:10.

  And I got there. I was saying happy birthday to my friend. We were celebrating. And then, almost immediately, we saw cop cars show up. So we could see the capital from the rooftop that we were at.

  And we saw, like, one cop car show up. And then we saw three, and then it totaled up to like nine cop cars. So, we looked to see where they were going. And they were surrounding the union. And then we saw cop cars coming from the other direction. So they were coming from the east side and from the west side.

  And then we just saw EMS showing up, fire trucks, everyone getting out of the vehicles and running towards the MSU union. And then, within a couple of minutes, we saw students running out of every exit with their hands up above their head. And students were just, like, scrambling to figure out where to go. And it was just crazy.

• Geoff Bennett:

  How long were you in the bar?

• Eleanor Hoss:

  We were there for about four hours, I believe.

  We — so, the bar was also a hotel. And they offered us rooms to stay for the night. So, they gave us a voucher around 11:30, midnight. But that was also around the same time that the stay-in-place order was lifted. But we were sitting in the bar for four hours, I think.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And you were hearing false reports, as I understand it, that there might have been multiple shooters.

• Eleanor Hoss:

  Yes.

  So I'm in a bunch of group chats because I'm an R.A., and everyone was sharing that they saw multiple gunmen. And there were reports that there were shots fired in every building on campus, essentially. Like, there were some in East campus. There were some in the Brody campus. And then people were spreading, like, pictures, false reports on everything.

  And so people thought there were like two or three gunmen throughout the campus.

• Geoff Bennett:

  How are you and your friends holding up? How are you processing all of this?

• Eleanor Hoss:

  So, I was definitely in a state of shock last night.

  I, like, couldn't cry. And then, this morning, I just woke up and cried for like 20 minutes. But my friends that did stay on campus, we have all been in touch with each other. Me and one of my good friends who's also an R.A., we met up and went on a walk through campus just a little bit ago. So, we went to the Spartan statue and to the rock, and we saw all the flowers that people had left.

  And it was really nice just to get out and walk around.

• Geoff Bennett:

  You mentioned you're a resident assistant to freshman residents. How are they doing?

• Eleanor Hoss:

  So, most of my residents have actually left.

  I have about 50 residents. And I think 80 to 90 percent of them have left the campus. My floor is usually very loud. I have a bunch of girls. They're all friends. And it's just dead silent here.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Do you feel safe at school, Eleanor?

• Eleanor Hoss:

  I do not feel safe.

  I actually — I went home this weekend because I didn't feel safe on campus. There was a lot of other crimes happening near or on campus this weekend. And so I just felt like I needed to leave. And then this happened.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Eleanor Hoss, I appreciate your willingness to speak with us.

  And you and everybody at MSU are in our thoughts.