What We Know About the Gunman Behind the Michigan State Attack

The man who the police say shot and killed three students and left five more critically wounded at Michigan State University before taking his own life on Monday had been arrested once before in Lansing, Mich., for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit.

The police in a New Jersey town where he went to school said he had a history of mental illness.

The gunman, Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, had been living with his father, Michael McRae, in Lansing and was often seen walking to and from his father’s house, which is on a quiet dead-end street, neighbors said.

He upset neighbors in the densely populated area last summer when he fired a gun in his father’s backyard.

Court records say that the gunman was arrested on June 7, 2019, on a charge of carrying a concealed pistol without a permit, a felony in Michigan. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of possessing a loaded firearm, and was sentenced to a year and a half of probation, which he finished in May 2021.

In the 2019 incident, he was arrested after a police officer stopped him near an abandoned building on East Street in Lansing around 1:30 a.m., a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, Chris Gautz, said in an email.

Mr. McRae told the officer he had just walked to a store to buy cigarettes, Mr. Gautz said. When asked, Mr. McRae admitted that he had a loaded Ruger pistol on him and did not have a concealed-weapons permit. He told the officer he carried the gun because he feared for his safety.

As part of his plea agreement in October 2019, he agreed to give up his firearm. It remained unclear on Tuesday afternoon when or where he had obtained the weapon he used in the attack on the campus.

The gunman had roots in and around Trenton, N.J., where his mother, Linda G. Goldware, was born and his parents met, according to an online obituary for Ms. Goldware, who died three years ago. He has a brother and a sister.

A note found in his pocket after his death suggested that he had threatened two public schools in Ewing Township, N.J., just outside Trenton. The police in Ewing Township said in a statement that Mr. McRae had ties to their community and “a history of mental illness,” without elaborating.

Anthony McRae’s uncle, Luther James McRae Jr., recalled his nephew as an inquisitive and happy child who attended schools in Ewing before moving out of state. “To the families, to whatever happened, my condolences,” Mr. McRae, 65, said in a telephone interview from his home in Trenton. “Ain’t no way in the world I can turn this around and make it like it wasn’t. I really feel for the families.”

The gunman worked in the early 2000s at a warehouse in Lansing belonging to the Meijer’s grocery store chain, according to a co-worker, Jason Root.

Mr. Root said Mr. McRae did not have a car, and often had to walk to work, take buses or get rides from co-workers. He also seemed to have difficulty with social situations and avoided eye contact when he spoke to people, Mr. Root said.

“He would look at the ground and stutter,” Mr. Root said. He said Mr. McRae was fired from the job a decade ago after failing a drug test.

Neighbors in Lansing said that the gunman’s father was a friendly and generous neighbor, a retired autoworker who collected scrap metal to resell. They said the son was viewed as eccentric.

Michigan Department of Corrections records say that Anthony McRae was not a large man, standing 5 feet 4 inches and weighing 165 pounds. On his Facebook page, which has been taken down, he listed his hometown as Trenton.

The authorities said he had no apparent connection with Michigan State University.

Julie Bosman and Sam Easter contributed reporting.