Five people were shot in two separate overnight shootings near Michigan State University's campus on Halloween night, East Lansing police said, with the first gunfire erupting just after midnight near a busy off-campus intersection. Officers recovered multiple guns at one of the scenes and took several people into custody, but much about what happened — including whether the two shootings were connected — remained unclear a day later.
The first shooting happened at 12:36 a.m. near the intersection of M.A.C. Avenue and Linden Street, sending three people to the hospital with gunshot wounds, according to The State News. A second shooting followed near Stoddard Avenue and Frye Avenue, where two more victims were taken to a local hospital. In total, the outlet reported, “two shootings occurred in the overnight hours between Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 that left five individuals injured.”
Conflicting accounts have emerged about the victims' conditions. The State News initially reported that two of the three victims from the M.A.C. Avenue and Linden Street shooting were in stable condition while the third victim's condition was unknown, but a later report from the same outlet said all three victims from that shooting were listed as stable. Similarly, one report said both victims from the second shooting were in stable condition, while a subsequent State News account said one was stable and the other's condition was unknown.
Guns Recovered, Several People Detained
Police said multiple guns were recovered from the scene of the second shooting, though it remains unclear whether those weapons were actually used in the gunfire. Officers also took several individuals into custody following one of the shootings, and police said there is no known threat to the community. However, East Lansing Police Chief Jennifer Brown did not say whether any arrests had been made, per WILX.
WILX also reported that a Ring doorbell camera captured the sound of shots ringing out during one of the shootings, offering a chilling audio record of the chaos that unfolded near campus. Neither the victims nor the suspects in either shooting were Michigan State University students, and both incidents happened off campus, according to the State News report.
Not the Only Overnight Emergency Near Campus
The two shootings were part of a busier-than-usual night for East Lansing emergency responders. According to ClickOnDetroit, police responded to four separate overnight incidents near MSU's campus on Halloween — the two shootings plus two unrelated pedestrian crashes. Seven people in total were hospitalized across all four incidents, according to WKAR.
Chief Brown told WKAR that the East Lansing Fire Department alone responded to 91 incidents over a 24-hour span, with 75 of those occurring overnight — a snapshot of just how chaotic Halloween night became in the college town. Metro Detroit News was among the outlets reporting that five people were shot in the two separate incidents near MSU's campus that night.
University Reviewing Its Response
Michigan State University has launched a review of how it responded to the shootings, the State News reported separately. The university said it did not send an emergency alert to students because the shootings happened off campus and no ongoing threat to the campus community had been identified at the time.
MSU said it would keep working with area public safety agencies to sort out how incidents like these should be handled going forward. The university said in a statement that it would “continue working with our local public safety partners to clarify each organization's role, identify any gaps in current protocols.”
Part of a Troubling Halloween Pattern Nationwide
East Lansing's violent night was not an isolated case. Six people were shot on Halloween night along a crowded stretch of Main Street in Newark, Delaware, near the University of Delaware, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Nationally, shootings over Halloween weekend left at least six people dead and dozens injured in nightlife districts across the country, per PBS News.
As of the latest reporting, East Lansing police have not clarified whether the two shootings near MSU's campus were connected, whether the recovered guns were tied to either incident, or what became of the people taken into custody. The State News noted investigators have not confirmed any of those details publicly.
