On Monday night, a little past 8 p.m. a gunman started a four-hour shooting spree [1] on the Michigan State University campus, killing three and critically injuring five. The shootings were met with an overwhelming law enforcement response by the Michigan State University Police, Michigan State Police, the FBI and many others. A plethora of police vehicles, ambulances, swat teams and a command center were seen in the area.
The suspect, a black man, reportedly took his own life after the police tracked him down after identifying him as who they were looking for. He has no known links to the college but we are at the initial phase of the investigation.
In order to get up-to-date information during the night, I went to a news You Tube channel that had the police scanner on during the incident. It was mayhem and chaos. It seemed like every five minutes, there was a report of “shots fired” in many different locations on campus. At one point, the police thought they might be looking for more than one shooter which obviously made sense with all of the reported “shootings” taking place. There were also calls of suspicious people and suspicious activities going on. The police had their hands full checking out all of the tips and clearing buildings.
I don’t usually listen to police scanners. At least I haven’t since I worked in a crime-ridden area of Nashville, Tennessee back in the ’90’s and we wanted to know if there were any criminal suspects headed our way on any given day.
What I heard last night was a mess – very confusing – and it was a glimpse into what law enforcement has to deal with in these kinds of situations. Although, I have to wonder if other school shootings have had THAT MANY “shots fired” reports. There were a LOT. More than there should have been, in my opinion from too many different locations.
I am hoping that the police look into some of these calls – and make examples of any people who were trying to mess with the police and divert resources from the situation. It’s disgusting that anyone would do something like that when law enforcement needs all hands on deck.
What you also find disgusting in the coming days and weeks is Gov. Whitmer’s use of the tragedy to get arm and arm with the Democrats and call for more gun control in Michigan. They have the votes – and now they have the marketing push that they need. I’m sure the students at MSU (yep, there is already a protest scheduled on Wednesday) will help her out with anti-gun protests and marches. The media will also comply.
And they will be loud and nasty about it. Rep. Ranjeev Puri put out a statement that says “F*ck your thoughts and prayers.”
Whitmer came out with a statement blaming the gun and not the shooter calling what happened on the MSU campus “another senseless act of gun violence.”
She said things “don’t have to be this way” and “we cannot accept living like this.”
Democratic House Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash [2], D-Hamtramck, is already on top of things. He tweeted, “In coming days, Michigan House Dems are committed to enacting policies that will address this uniquely American problem of gun violence.”
We don’t have a gun violence problem.
We have a PEOPLE violence problem and we have a judicial system that lets criminals out over and over and over again whether they use guns or not.