Former students sue MSU at Eve of Mass Shooting anniversary

On By Littum

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East Lansing – A former student of Michigan State University who was in room 114 in Berkey Hall when a gunman shot several classmates, defendant two deadly, almost two years since the university on Wednesday.

The complaint, which was filed one day before the second anniversary of the mass shooting, which killed three students and injured five others on February 13, 2023, claims that MSU officials could and should have prevented the incident.

Former student, Justin Bowman, claims the mass shooting in the Berkey Hall, and the MSU union was “completely preventable” and that the actions of former temporary President Teresa Woodruff and former head of security officer Marlon Lynch made Campus Urley for students.

“Every defendant named in it created and increased the dangers that then existing at Michigan State University,” argued Bowman’s Southfield-based lawyer Nora Hanna in the trial. “Every single defendant named herein committed behavior that corresponds to gross negligence, causing severe and permanent physical and emotional trauma to plaintiff and others.”

MSU speaker Amber McCann did not respond to a comment for comment Wednesday afternoon.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court of Western District in Michigan, also names the University’s Board of Directors; John Prush, Deputy CEO of the Police Department’s Management Agency; Dan Bollman, vice president of strategic infrastructure planning and facilities; The University of Police Department; and the office of infrastructure planning and facilities.

The complaint claims that Bowman was in Berkey Hall Room 114 when a man with a gun entered the room and shot seven of his classmates and killed Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner before leaving the building and killing another student, Brian Fraser, in MSU union.

Bowman was not injured according to the complaint, but he suffers from PTSD and anxiety among other emotional and physical distress.

The trial claims that at one point he was dead until the gunman left, then tried to comfort one of the students who died of her injuries and used her shirt as a bandage.

Bowman graduated from MSU in May 2024 and no longer lives in East Lansing, his lawyer said.

“We’ve been waiting for MSU to do something for two years now, and they haven’t,” Hanna told the State Journal. “We have to motivate them to do something.”

Hanna said she hopes the trial convinces the university to start taking the security of her students seriously.

“This is not the first time MSU failed their students,” she said.

Bowman said his right to an education was denied by university officials who knew Campus was uncertain and the security apparatus was outdated. He is looking for compensation, medical expenses, wage losses and lawyer fees and interest.

By 2024, the university reached a settlement of $ 15 million with the families of the three students killed in the shooting. As part of the settlement, MSU denied “wrongdoing or any responsibility of any kind.” Four of the five students who were injured in the attack took steps in 2023 to sue the university, but no settlements have been announced.

The university said it has taken steps to increase the security of campus, including putting Door locks on about 1,600 classrooms And teaching laboratories that previously did not have them as room 114 in Berkey. The university also said it would stand up a strategic operating center to be housed on the Ministry of Police, which will tie all campus security cameras to a surveillance site. Police officials said the center would be manned around the clock.

MSU paid for a review of its response to the shooting. The report released in October 2023 found that the school’s actions were largely appropriate, but it lacked “command and control” of the huge amount of staff, the first responders and others who rushed to the stage, a report shows.

The involvement of members of the school board also further complicated the efforts, consultants said.

COntact sarah atwood on [email protected]. Follow her on x @sarahmatwood.