EAST LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — When you are running for your life, you leave things behind. Now law enforcement is working to get belongings back to students at Michigan State University.
“About 100 students heard a gunshot and left all their items right where they were,” said Jim Tarasca, FBI Special Agent in Charge in Michigan. “And that is good. It saves lives.”
Tarasca says as they came to get their things at the MSU Union, the FBI had victim specialists there offering support.
Dan Dunn came with his son, freshman Connor Dunn, to the MSU Union to get belongings he left behind when he and his triathlon teammates heard gunshots.
Connor says he detached from the fear until he saw his parents' faces as they picked him up after the violence.
“When I saw them pull up in the driveway it hit me like wow - I was in serious danger last night. And seeing them was the most emotional I have been," said Connor.
“He is still here with us and we feel so bad for those families, those other parents,” said Dan Dunn, his dad. “It's horrible, horrible that this happened.”
“I heard a series of bangs and initially I thought it was someone messing around, taking pans and banging them together. But then I saw people running. And I knew this was serious,” said Andrew Strominger, an MSU student from Milford who was working at the Union, serving food when the shooting happened.
He says he is thinking about a coworker who lost his life.
“And then yesterday I find out one of my coworkers, Brian Fraser, had been shot and killed,” said Andrew.
“He just lost it at that point, because he had this hope until they released his name. And then he knew. And it just tears me up,” said Anne Strominger, Connor's mom.
MSU is offering free crisis counseling to help students and staff. You can learn more at https://caps.msu.edu/emergency/feb2023crisisresponse/.
