As Michigan State University continues to mourn the loss of three students at the hands of a gunman, police have revealed the contents of the suspected shooter’s suicide note.
The 43-year-old suspect, who will not be named by The Daily Wire, had a two-page note in his wallet when he shot himself as police closed in on him following the shooting, The Daily Beast reported. That note claimed MSU had rejected him for a job opening at some point in the past, though this rejection has not been confirmed.
Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez said Thursday that the job rejection angle is “being investigated,” and also provided other possible motives for the shooter. One of the other possibilities is that the shooter suffered from mental illness.
The suspect’s note also mentioned a former job and suggested he was angry with previous employers and employees.
“It appears that he had some issues with the employees there where he was asked to leave,” Gonzalez said in reference to the suspect’s former job that was mentioned in the note. “So it looks like possibly a motive for that was he felt slighted, and that’s kind of what the note indicated.”
The note veered off into provably false territory when the suspect claimed he was one of 20 people prepared to carry out an attack. The suspect’s father reportedly told detectives that his son had no friends and stayed in his room all day.
“He ate, went to the bathroom in there,” Gonzalez said, according to the Beast. “His father didn’t believe he had any friends let alone 20 of them that would help him … so we kind of determined that he was the lone shooter in this.”
“We believe there were no other suspects involved and [the suspect] was the lone shooter,” Gonzalez added, according to The Washington Post.
The outlet also reported that MSU’s interim president, Teresa Woodruff, announced that classes were canceled through Sunday, and that Berkey Hall, where two of the students were killed, would be closed for the rest of the semester. School officials are still deciding whether to reopen the student union, where the third student was killed, the Post reported.
The suspected shooter had a previous 2019 conviction for possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle, for which he spent up to 18 months in state prison, The Detroit News reported. He was released from supervision in May 2021.
Police had also been called out to the suspect’s residence before because he would fire his gun out the back door, possibly for target practice, the News reported.
Police released photos of the suspect, a black male, on Monday night, The Daily Wire previously reported, and shortly after, a report came in of a person matching that description in the Lansing area, according to Chris Rozman, interim chief of the MSU Police and Public Safety Department. When police confronted the man, he reportedly shot himself. He died from his wound.