EAST LANSING, Mich. — Classes at Michigan State University will not resume until at least Monday, February 20. Students and staff continue to find ways off campus, with the bulk of parking lots mostly empty by Wednesday afternoon.
People started flooding back in temporarily Wednesday evening for a march and vigil planned to begin at 6:00 p.m..
Students are desperately trying to find some way to make sense of what happened.
Monday's deadly shooting left three young people dead— Brian Fraser and Arielle Anderson from Grosse Pointe, and Alexandria Verner from Clawson.
“It's a place you’re excited to go to, a place you want to go to... and now it's a place you fear going to," Senior Ashley Krause told FOX 17 Wednesday morning. "It's horrifying."
She and two close friends stopped by "The Rock" on campus to take in the difficult reality.
The large stone is constantly painted by students, typically in a celebratory capacity or to announce a student organization event.
"You never think it's going to happen to your campus, then it's there and you don’t feel safe anywhere," Krause said.
As of Wednesday evening, the Rock had already been painted four different times since the deadly shooting.
It was first covered with the message "How many more?" late Monday night, mere hours after police found the body of suspected shooter, 43-year-old Anthony McRae.
The message stayed until early Wednesday morning.
It was then covered up and replaced with “Allow us to defend ourselves & carry on campus."
A few hours after that, two female students showed up to apply a new message: "To those we lost, to those healing" and included the names of the three students who lost their lives.
Before noon Wednesday, that had been replaced by imagery and messaging requested by MSU administrators.
The rock is now adorned with the phrase "Always a Spartan", and the classic helmet logo imagery.
“No one should come and have to do this, but I was called by Michigan State to come out here," artist Anthony Lee said. "I don’t take any joy being out here, but I'm glad art can serve the community."
The flowers, signs, candles, and keepsakes continue to pile up at the "Sparty" statue near Spartan Stadium as well.
"It's a good feeling to see how many of the students are here binding together in support of what happened, but it's an overwhelming feeling," said freshman Carley Hildebrant after visiting the statue on Wednesday.
