Michigan State University Shooting: Misleading Info Identifying Suspect Spreads Online
(Photo : Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Several misleading pieces of information have gone viral online regarding the Michigan State University shooting suspect. Here's the truth!

Social media users assert that the gunman on the campus of Michigan State University on February 13, 2023, was a guy called "Lynn Dee Walker," who published a threatening Facebook post before opening fire.

The individual whose photograph has been released online is not the shooter identified by investigators, and the alleged Facebook post looks like a synthetic fake.

Misleading Info About Michigan State University Shooting Suspect

"According to dispatch audio, 21-year-old Lynn Dee Walker is the SUSPECT in the shooting at Michigan State University. He remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous, "stated a tweet on February 13, immediately after the incident.

Two photographs of a Caucasian man with a beard and spectacles were included in the tweet. Since then, the tweets have been removed, and the Twitter account's username has been changed, but similar postings proliferated everywhere, from 4chan and Telegram to Twitter and Facebook.

The accusations appeared to have reached the police, as a dispatcher can be heard recounting a tip that was called in on the night of the incident on police scanner recordings. Nevertheless, the social media user identified as "Lynn Dee Walker" is not the shooter, and the threatening Facebook post looks to be a fabrication.

Later, authorities identified the alleged gunman as 43-year-old Anthony McRae, who died from a self-inflicted wound after killing three people, injuring five others, and forcing hundreds of others on the Lansing campus to seek safety.

The next day, the account owner tweeted that he had been wrongfully accused of being a mass shooter. In prior tweets, he has identified himself as Cameron. He identified himself to the Associated Press as Cameron Fuller, a journalist from Massachusetts.

Per AFP, the name "Lynn Dee Walker" appears to be derived from an online joke, and the Facebook post utilizing the photograph of the owner of the "@Logo Daedalus" account is a fraud.

In a series of tweets, the Twitter user who seems to have initially uploaded Fuller's images claimed credit for spreading the fake accusations, explaining that the alleged Facebook post was a "photoshop meme" that used a fictional name and that it was "meant to be an inside joke" but "got out of hand."

Others who spread the scam on social media have recanted their statements or acknowledged being faked. Meanwhile, there were reports of gunshots from dorm rooms across the whole campus. There have been reports of gunfire and screams emanating from a basketball court. Five individuals were threatened with a handgun at off-campus housing.

Monday night's deadly shooting at Michigan State University left three students dead, five others critically injured, and more than 50,000 students in lockdown for hours. Thousands of people on campus in East Lansing, Michigan, and throughout the world tuned in to live transmissions of the local police scanner while law enforcement launched the manhunt.

The audio recording between cops, medics, and dispatchers gave people a rare and sometimes horrifying glimpse into the reaction to the mass shooting, as per NY Times.

They also revealed a nearly impossible task for even the most coordinated and refined law enforcement response: tracking down a lone gunman on an eight-square-mile campus with 400 buildings, decentralized closed-circuit television cameras, and tens of thousands of terrified students and faculty who saw danger lurking in every shadow.

Later, it became apparent that the danger emanated from a single source: a 43-year-old guy wearing a denim jacket and red sneakers and carrying a pistol, who now appears to have fled the institution shortly after opening fire in two buildings on the campus' northern boundary.

At the time, neither the public nor law enforcement knew this, as they were pursuing a torrent of 911 calls across a campus riddled with dead ends and false alarms. Some dispatch calls exceed the map's range or are not localized to a single area.

Numerous dispatch calls mention multiple 911 complaints. Architecture is outlined and shaded Times analysis of police scanner audio from the Broadcastify-provided "Greater Lansing Area Public Safety" channel; OpenStreetMap Via Leanne Abraham.

Read Also: Mississippi Shooting: Suspect Arrested After Killing 6  

MSU Shooting Suspect Anthony McRae

Per USA Today, authorities allege that Anthony McRae is the gunman who murdered three students and injured five more at Michigan State University on Monday evening. Chris Rozman, interim deputy head of campus police, identified McRae as the suspect during a media conference on Tuesday morning, saying that McRae had committed suicide by gunfire.

McRae was also identified as the "individual who perpetrated these killings" in a post from the university police's verified Twitter account. McRae's corpse was discovered early Tuesday morning off campus.

McRae was not linked with the institution, and investigators did not know why he came to campus as of Tuesday morning. McRae was arrested on a gun-related allegation in Lansing, Michigan, in 2019. He entered a guilty plea but served no time in prison. Late in 2019, he was placed on probation and was released in May 2021. According to court documents, he was not permitted to own or possess a firearm while on probation.

Related Article: Michigan State Shooting Gunman Had 'Mental Issues'

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