EAST LANSING, Mich. — Three students who were injured during the 2023 Michigan State University shooting have reached multi-million dollar settlements with the school.
Three people were killed and five others were wounded when a 43-year-old gunman opened fire in two campus buildings on Feb. 13, 2023, Campus Safety previously reported. Killed in the shooting were students Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser, and Alexandria Verner. Injured in the shooting were students Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, Hanyang Tao, Yukai “John” Hao, Nate Statly, and Troy Forbush.
Attorneys representing three of the victims announced on June 10 that they had settled with the school for just under $30 million, Lansing State Journal reports. Statly, who was shot in the head and requires extensive medical treatment and ongoing care, settled with the school for $14.25 million. Hao, who was paralyzed from the chest down after he was shot in the back, agreed to a $13 million settlement. MSU also agreed to cover Hao’s tuition, room and board, and health insurance for the remainder of his undergraduate and graduate degrees at MSU. Forbush, who suffered a serious lung injury after he was shot in the chest, will receive $2.5 million.
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Tao, who was shot in the back, filed a notice of intent to sue the university back in June 2023 but no subsequent filings have been made publicly available. Huapilla-Perez, who was shot twice and suffered damage to her lungs, colon, stomach, and diaphragm, has not taken any public legal action against the school.
Michigan State previously approved a $15 million settlement with the families of the three students who were killed in the attack. The families or estates of each victim received $5 million.
MSU Makes Improvements Following 2023 Mass Shooting
In Oct. 2023, MSU released findings of an independent after-action review of its response to the shooting. Notably, the 26-page report commended the initial response of MSU police officers, calling it “appropriate, timely and correct.”
The report also outlined several shortcomings and suggests improvements for 14 areas related to both response and recovery, including public safety department policies and procedures, officer safety and equipment, leadership coordination and collaboration, interagency memorandums of understanding (MOUs), emergency medical and psychological care, first responder wellness and mental health, and victim and witness support, among others.
As of March, MSU had adopted 78 recommendations — 52 of which are complete, 27 of which are ongoing or in process, and one that remains incomplete. Key access control upgrades include the installation of:
- Thumb locks in 520 classrooms
- Electronic locks in 150 classrooms
- Lockdown buttons in 56 classrooms
MSU also now operates a state-of-the-art Security Operations Center (SOC) that monitors roughly 2,000 cameras in real-time. It is staffed 24/7 by 12 full-time employees and a supervisor. On the night of the shooting, MSU was unable to monitor feeds from its security cameras in real-time.
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The school also now requires students and faculty to use their university ID cards to enter campus buildings on evenings and weekends. Prior to the shooting, buildings were accessible until 11 p.m. without ID checks.
MSU also automatically registered the cell phone numbers of 51,000 students and 7,000 employees to receive emergency alerts and equipped outdoor speakers and sirens to deliver audio emergency announcements. A sergeant attempted to order a campus lockdown alert two minutes after the gunman started shooting but the notification wasn’t sent until 10 minutes later.
Additionally, MSU has adopted facial recognition technology to assist in investigations and deployed walk-through metal detectors Spartan Stadium, Munn Ice Arena, and the MSU Tennis Center.
