The father of the Michigan State University killer 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, had begun to ‘change’ after his mother Linda died from a stroke in 2020 and that he was ‘getting more and more bitter.’
‘Angry and bitter. So angry. Evil angry,’ the father told CNN. ‘Ever since my wife died, my son began to change.
‘He began to really let himself go. His teeth were falling out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolf man.
‘He didn’t care about anything no more,’ the father said of his child, who he said was previously a ‘mama’s boy.’
‘He loved his mom. They were tight. His mom was like his sister,’ he told NBC News.
McRae killed three and left five students injured on Monday at the university before turning the gun on himself after a four-hour shooting spree.
Michael McRae, 66, said his son Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, had begun to ‘change’ after his mother Linda died from a stroke in 2020 nd that he was ‘getting more and more bitter’
‘Angry and bitter. So angry. Evil angry,’ the father said. ‘He began to really let himself go. His teeth were falling out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolf man. He didn’t care about anything no more’
The father had previously described his son as a ‘mama’s boy’
McRae had no known links to the university, but he did live five miles from campus with his father, where about 30 police officers came and ‘tore it all up.’
Anthony also said his son had a hard time holding down a job and wasn’t employed at the time of the shooting, but had worked at a warehouse loading dock for seven years prior.
McRae had been reclusive after his mother’s death and ‘wouldn’t talk to me or anyone,’ his father recalled to CNN.
‘He only came out to go to the kitchen or go to the bathroom, then he’d go right back in [the bedroom].’
He also said his son’s moods would turn rapidly and he didn’t ‘know what happened to make him turn like this.’
‘He’d treat me like I was invisible. I’d ask: “Why are you treating me this way? What did I do?”‘ the 66-year-old told CNN. ‘I told him: “You need help.”
McRae is seen leaving the scene on Monday (pictured)
‘He got mad if I tried to get him help. I was trying to help him. He’d close the door. He stayed in his room a lot. I didn’t want to start trouble – he’d get mad at me.’
Anthony called his son a ‘bad apple’ and said McRae had been a ‘good kid before my wife died,’ but ‘totally lost’ it after she passed.
However, his sister, Melinda McRae, said her brother’s problems began before their mother’s death and that McRae would often flee to other cities ‘just to live in a shelter.’
‘He’s always been like the oddball of the family,’ she told CNN. ‘My mom said that Anthony is going to be the death of 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 got are shooting and killing, shooting and killing,’ he told The Independent.
The father also maintains that McRae had his gun confiscated by police a few years ago and didn’t know his son had somehow got ahold of another weapon.
‘I don’t allow guns in my house,’ he told The Independent. ‘I don’t believe in that. I got my Bible. I didn’t know what he was going on doing and what was in his mind to do.’
Anthony never thought his son would be capable of committing a mass shooting and didn’t realize 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 at Berkey Hall and a third at the university’s Union, then took his own life shortly before midnight following a confrontation with police off-campus, in the city of Lansing.
On Monday, McRae killed two people at Berkey Hall and a third at the university’s Union, then took his own life shortly before midnight following a confrontation with police off-campus, in the city of Lansing.
The 43-year-old shooter was shot dead in the city of East Lansing
He terrorized the campus for nearly four hours – as multiple reports confirmed he was running through the streets, brandishing a gun, and shooting bullets – but police have not yet been able to establish a motive.
Chris Rozman, the interim deputy chief of Michigan State University police, said: ‘We have no idea why he came to campus. He was not affiliated in any way with Michigan State University – he is not faculty or a student or staff.’
Rozman confirmed the five injured people gunned down in the terror on Monday night remained in a critical condition at Sparrow Hospital.
