Michigan State's new security measures in place one month after campus shooting

EAST LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - A month ago, a gunman with no ties to Michigan State University killed three students, hurt 5 others, and flipped over the lives of thousands of young adults. Now, campus looks much different as new security measures are in place on Monday, exactly one month later.

At 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13, Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman rushed to campus, along with a flood of first responders from all over the state.

"One month ago today, about 8:30 I was putting my kids to bed and I received the first phone call," he said.

A man armed with two pistols and a backpack full of ammunition was shooting indiscriminately. He ultimately killed three students before running out of the door just one minute before police arrived. As thousands of 911 calls were placed, a manhunt ensued. Meanwhile, inside the building, students were helping their classmates.

"I truly do credit the actions of the students to rendering aid, our officers on scene that rendered aid, followed by our EMS partners that entered an area that wasn't safe that point that ran in to save people's lives," Rozman said.

In the days that followed, new security were put in place on campus, which included limiting access to buildings. Starting on Monday, academic buildings will now need a keycard to access between 6 p.m. and 7:30 a.m.

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Rozman said this is a first step and that resident halls won't change - yet.

"Our residence halls, specifically the residential wings, are locked 24 hours a day. The building exterior doors lock overnight," Rozman said.

The university is also integrating thousands of cameras on campus into a real-time crime center. That's been in the works since last fall and Rozman said it's an important step to ensure safety of students and everyone on campus.

"We are moving towards a security operations center that will be staffed 24 hours a day the ability of that security op center will include real time cameras monitoring and review," he said.

There are currently 2,000 cameras on campus and they're adding more - especially for outdoor monitoring.

The next step is to outfit classrooms with locks that secure people inside - while giving access to first responders on the outside.

"There are approximately 1,500 classrooms on campus and we hope to begin installing locks in classrooms and we have a target date of next fall to have a lot of those locks installed," Rozman said.