Criminal profiler discusses motive of MSU gunman

SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) – As police continue to investigate the motive of the gunman at MSU Monday night, a criminal profiler said what happened at the university is perplexing to him.

“There’s a lot of unusual aspects to this one,” said Steve Thompson, a retired CMU professor and criminal profiler.

Investigators have identified Anthony McRae as the gunman who killed three people and seriously injured five on the campus of Michigan State University.

The 43-year-old man left everyone with questions about why he committed such a crime.

“He’s five miles away. There were plenty of targets of opportunity in between his residence and Berkey Hall,” Thompson said.

Police said McRae had no connection to the school, which left many to wonder why a man his age chose to kill students on a university campus.

“He’s not in the age range that you would think somebody would be in when their target getting a college campus,” Thompson said.

According to the National Institute of Justice, while 97.7 percent of mass shooters are male, 52.3 percent of them are white with an average age of 34.

“You had no affiliation, so you can’t say revenge. You can’t say a disgruntled employee coming back into the workplace,” Thompson said. “I mean, when you’re looking at threat assessment, which I teach about that this is very contrary to what you would normally look at as a threat. Very weird.”

Investigators believe MSU may not have been the only target based on a note in his pocket indicating threats to schools in New Jersey.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, this is the 15th mass shooting in the U.S. this month.

There have been 67 mass shootings this year, averaging more than one per day.

Read next:

• MSU students mourn lives lost in shooting
• Community rallies around each other day after deadly mass shooting
• Police ID 3 students, gunman killed in MSU shooting

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