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The mass shooter who killed three students and left five others in critical condition at Michigan State University was identified Tuesday as a 43-year-old local man who was previously busted on firearm charges.

Anthony Dwayne McRae was IDed after he was found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound at 11:35 p.m., just over three hours after he first opened fire at the East Lansing campus.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point,” MSU Police Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman said early Tuesday.

McRae “had no affiliation to the university — he was not a student, faculty or staff, current or previous.”

“I know everybody wants to know what the motive is. We don’t have an answer right now, that’s the honest truth,” Rozman said of the “heinous” attack.

McRae was finally tracked down after a local resident called a tip line during the more than three hours he was hunted after shooting up two locations at the school, officials said.

“We did recover a weapon,” the top cop said, without elaborating on what type nor if it is believed to be the same used in the mass shooting.

McRae’s previous conviction stems from an incident on June 7, 2019, when he was busted with a loaded weapon near an abandoned building, the Michigan Department of Corrections said.

Anthony Dwayne McRae was IDed after he was found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound at 11:35 p.m.
A photo of the Michigan State University shooting suspect. MSU-East Lansing PD
A timeline of the mass shooting at Michigan State University.

McRae — who was seen glum-faced in his mugshot wearing a striped shirt and vest — was charged with possession of a loaded firearm after he was found to be carrying the gun without a concealed weapons permit.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the tragic shooting at Michigan State University

After pleading guilty to the charge, McRae was on probation from Oct. 2019 through May 2021. The Michigan DOC confirmed that he did not have any issues on probation and never submitted a positive drug test.

Prior to the 2019 arrest, McRae had four counts of driving with a suspended license from 2006 to 2008. 

Police officers with weapons drawn rush into Phillips Hall on the campus of Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Mich. AP
All victims were identified as MSU students. WILX

An online obituary states that McRae’s mother, Linda Gail McRae, died on Sept. 13, 2020 at Sparrow Hospital– the same Lansing medical center treating the five injured by her crazed son. 

Trauma surgeon Denny Martin broke down at Tuesday’s press conference as he detailed treating the five injured, all of whom remain in critical condition Tuesday.

All five were students, as were the three killed, officials said, without identifying any.

Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, on Feb. 13, 2023. REUTERS

Shots were fired in two locations on the sprawling East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

McRae first started shooting inside an academic building called Berkey Hall, where two of the dead were found. 

Rozman said “there was an absolutely overwhelming police response” with “officers in that building within minutes.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she spoke with President Biden about Monday night’s fatal shooting.

As they treated the injured, officers started getting calls of shots fired at the nearby MSU Union building, which houses a student dining hall, where a third fatality was found.

One survivor told the “Today” show early Tuesday that the gunman had been silent when he burst through the back door of her classroom and started shooting at the 20 or so students inside.

Claire Papoulias recalled hearing “three or four gunshots directly behind” her head, immediately dropping to the floor as someone yelled that there was a shooter.

MSU students evacuated to a safe area during the Feb. 13 shooting. Getty Images

“At that moment, I thought I was gonna die. I was so scared,” she told the NBC breakfast show, praising other students for heroically racing to smash open windows to help them flee.

During the carnage, she called her mom, Natalie Papoulias, who “heard about three gunshots and screaming” on Claire’s end.

“It was my worst nightmare,” the mom said, adding she felt her legs would give way as she rushed to get in her car to race to the campus.

People shelter in place inside the Broad Art Museum near Berkey Hall on the campus of Michigan State University on Feb. 13, 2023, in East Lansing, Michigan. AP

“I mean, I feel like she literally like dodged a bullet.”

Videos posted online showed swarms of terrified students running across the campus as officers tried to take command of the chaotic scene.

Following the first report of shots fired, students and staff at the school were ordered to “secure in place,” authorities said.

Michigan State University students hug during an active shooter situation on campus on Feb. 13, 2023, in Lansing, Michigan. Getty Images

University police on Monday night sent out an alert warning the campus community to “Run, Hide, Fight.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she had called President Biden over the shooting, which she called “a weekly American problem.”

“We are all broken by an all too familiar feeling,” she said, adding: “We cannot keep going on like this.”

“Words are not good enough. We must act and we will,” Whitmer said.

The shooting comes just one day shy of the five-year anniversary of when 14 students and three teachers were killed at Florida’s Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

As of Tuesday morning, many of McRae’s relatives could not be immediately reached for comment.

“I haven’t seen or talked to that kid in years,” one of his aunts told The Post.

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