Michigan Senate leader and parent of MSU student reflects on mass shooting one year later

Senate leader had child at MSU when shooting happened

Winnie Brinks, the Democratic leader in the Michigan Senate was among the parents scared for their kids' safety while a mass shooting took place at MSU one year ago.

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - For parents of Michigan State University students, the visits they normally make are for tailgating and football games. They'll trek to East Lansing to spend time with their kids and reminisce about their time as a Spartan.

But on Feb. 13 one year ago, there was no joy. Instead, fear draped over the evening as parents learned of a school shooting taking place on the campus where their kids lived. They saw news coverage of the tragedy and received frantic phone calls from loved ones.

Among the parents that spent the night worried was Winnie Brinks, the Senate Democratic leader and a mother of an MSU student herself.

The memories of that night still give her pause a year later.

"I can't help but remember sitting with my daughter the day after the shooting incident in the basement of the house where she was living right next to the campus and thinking about all of the things that could have gone better," she said.

Three students died that night and several others were injured. The shooter, later identified as Anthony McCrae opened fire inside a classroom in Berkey Hall before moving to the student union.

The events of that night provided momentum in the legislature to pass a series of gun safety-related measures that went into effect this week. They include mandatory safe storage rules, expanded universal background checks, and extreme risk protection orders.

Changes also happened on campus.

University officials did their own deep dive into what went right and wrong that night and now 82% of the classroom doors in campus buildings can be locked from the inside. That was not the case a year ago.

A new more extensive camera surveillance system is also coming online.

"I certainly hope that they are taking every opportunity to do all of those easy things and changes to the physical buildings and the lock and things like that that should be relatively no brainers to do to keep the students safer," said Brinks.