MSU killer’s father says his son was ‘totally lost’ after mother’s death
The killer’s father from Michigan State University said he was “totally lost” after his mother’s death and had become a “wolf man.”
Michael McRae, 66, said his son Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, started to ‘change’ after his mother Linda died of a stroke in 2020 and that he was ‘becoming increasingly bitter’.
Angry and bitter. So mad. Evil angry,” the father told CNN. “Since my wife died, my son has started to change.
“He was really letting himself go. His teeth fell out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolf man.
“He didn’t care about anything anymore,” the father said of his child, who he said was more of a “mummy’s boy.”
‘He loved his mother. They were tight. His mother was like his sister,’ he said.
McRae killed three and left five students wounded at the university on Monday before turning the gun on himself after a four-hour shootout.
Michael McRae, 66, (pictured) said his son started to ‘change’ after his mother Linda died of a stroke in 2020 and that he was ‘becoming increasingly bitter’
Angry and bitter. So mad. Angry angry,’ said the father. “He was really letting himself go. His teeth fell out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolf man. He didn’t care about anything anymore’
The father had previously described his son as a ‘mommy’s boy’
McRae was not known to have ties to the university, but he did live five miles from campus with his father, where about 30 police officers came and “torn everything up.”
Anthony also said his son had a hard time holding down a job and was out of a job at the time of the shooting, having worked on a loading dock seven years prior.
McRae was withdrawn after his mother’s death and “didn’t want to talk to me or anyone else,” his father recalled to CNN.
“He only came out to go to the kitchen or to the bathroom, then he went right back in [the bedroom].’
He also said his son’s moods would soon turn and he didn’t know “what happened that made him spin like that.”
“He treated me like I was invisible. I would ask, “Why are you treating me like this? What have I done?” the 66-year-old told CNN. “I told him, ‘You need help.’
McRae leaves the scene on Monday (pictured)
“He got mad when I tried to help him. I tried to help him. He would close the door. He stayed in his room a lot. I didn’t want to cause trouble – he’d get mad at me.’
Anthony called his son a “rotten apple,” saying that McRae had been a “good kid before my wife died,” but had “completely lost her way” after she passed away.
However, his sister, Melinda McRae, said her brother’s troubles began before their mother’s death and that McRae often fled to other cities “just to live in a shelter.”
“He’s always been the odd man out in the family,” she told CNN. “My mother said Anthony is going to kill her.”
She caught her brother saying, “I’m sorry, Mom, I’m sorry,” after she died.
The brother and sister have not seen each other since their mother’s funeral in 2020.
The father also blamed video games for causing the monstrosity in the world.
“All the games you have are shoot and kill, shoot and kill,” he told The Independent.
The father also claims that McRae’s gun was confiscated by police a few years ago and was unaware that his son had somehow gotten his hands on another gun.
“I don’t allow guns in my house,” he told The Independent. ‘I don’t believe in that. I have my Bible. I didn’t know what he was doing or what he intended to do.’
Anthony never thought his son would be capable of a mass shooting and didn’t realize that McRae had been the shooter at MSU until his neighbor called and told him his son had been killed.
On Monday, McRae killed two people in Berkey Hall and a third in the university’s Union before committing suicide shortly before midnight after a confrontation with police off-campus, in the town of Lansing.
The 43-year-old gunman was shot dead in the town of East Lansing
He terrorized the campus for nearly four hours — as multiple reports confirmed he ran through the streets, brandishing a gun and firing bullets — but police have yet to determine a motive.
Chris Rozman, Michigan State University deputy deputy chief of police, said, “We have no idea why he came to campus. He was not affiliated with Michigan State University in any way—he is not a faculty, student, or staff.”
Rozman confirmed that the five wounded who were shot in the terror on Monday evening are in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.