The suspected perpetrator of the Monday mass shooting at Michigan State University had a 2019 felony weapons charge against him dismissed under a former county prosecutor decried for her lenient prosecution approach, according to reports.
Anthony McRae, 43, allegedly shot and killed three Michigan State University students, injuring five others before ultimately killing himself, according to police. He had pleaded guilty in October 2019 to misdemeanor possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, with prosecutors dismissing an initial felony charge of carrying a concealed pistol without a concealed carry permit, Ingham County court records cited by The Detroit News show.
This occurred during the tenure of former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, who retired at the end of 2022, the Lansing State Journal reported. Siemon said she didn’t believe life sentences without the possibility of parole, receiving calls to resign for limiting felony firearm possession charges and giving a plea deal to a man who killed two women and allegedly planned to murder two others.
Records said police originally arrested McRae in the concealed carry case in Lansing in June 2019, according to The Detroit News. The felony he was initially charged with was legally punishable by up to five years in prison, but he received a 12-month probation sentence for the misdemeanor conviction in November 2019, with probation expiring in May 2020 after a six-month extension enabling him to finish the probation order’s terms.
