To report that there has been a incident
on the campus of Michigan State University.
There has been shots fired and a shooting
in multiple locations near campus.
Please understand that the information that
we're sharing right now is preliminary.
Our priority right now is the safety
of our students and our campus.
The information that we're sharing
may change, but we are going to be
as transparent as we can and share
as much information as we can.
But that information may change
as it's preliminary.
This incident started this evening
around 8:18 PM at Berkey Hall on campus.
We received multiple 911 calls
of a shooting inside Berkey Hall.
Numerous officers responded.
We were quickly on scene within minutes.
And there we did locate several victims
of a shooting. The incident did.
Move to a building in close proximity,
the Michigan State University Union building.
Where there was another report of
a shooting immediately following
the first incident.
Police and emergency
responders acted quickly.
We tended to the victims
at both of those scenes.
And there was a overwhelming law
enforcement response to campus
to help with this situation.
I can confirm that there
were at least five victims.
All five victims were
transported to the hospital.
Some of those victims do have
life threatening injuries.
The suspect in this incident and
we believe there to be 1 suspect.
Was last seen leaving the MSU Union on foot.
On the north side of that building.
We are just receiving surveillance
footage of that suspect that
we will be releasing shortly.
Initial information is that
the suspect is a black male,
shorter in statue, wearing red shoes,
a Jean jacket and a ball cap,
and we will follow up with additional
descriptors of that suspect.
Community members on and off campus
should remain sheltered in place.
We immediately launched our emergency
notification system and advised the
entire MSU campus to shelter in place.
As the suspect is still outstanding.
For people on campus,
please do not come to campus.
I can't say that enough for parents.
We understand. I can only imagine the
emotion that's involved right now.
It's going to help us and it's going
to help our response and it's going
to help us identify the shooter.
The less people that are
on campus at this point,
please do not come to campus.
We are doing everything we can to
ensure the safety of our campus.
And all of our students.
We currently have hundreds of police
officers and law enforcement officials,
state, local and federal,
on campus working in a coordinated effort.
To ensure the safety of campus and
identify and apprehend the suspect.
All campus activities will be
cancelled for the next 48 hours.
Including sporting events,
classes and all campus related activities.
Please follow our Twitter page for updates.
We are sharing live updates at that location.
I can't stress this enough.
You're probably hearing a lot of
information and misinformation
right now from social media.
The scanner calls that we're
receiving that are not accurate.
We strongly encourage you to follow
the accurate information source and
we will continue to provide as many
updates and accurate updates as we can.
There has been false reports,
false reports of additional shootings.
There has been false reports of the suspect
seen in numerous different locations.
Those reports are not accurate.
Please follow us for accurate information.
As I said, we're very early
on in this investigation.
It remains ongoing and we are going
to continue to meet back here
and provide updates on the hour.
We wanted to provide.
As much accurate information as possible
as possible right now and we will
continue to do that moving forward.
As I said, information is very preliminary
at this point and we are working
very hard to gather that information
to accurately get it out to our community.
To students, to parents,
and to everybody.
Who, who needs that information?
Please know that the safety and security
of this campus and our students is
our absolute priority at this point.
We will meet back here at midnight
for an additional update.
We will push out some information,
including a photograph of the
suspect that we just obtained
immediately following this briefing.
Thank you, and we'll see
you back here in an hour.