‘It was scary. It was mortifying': Michigan State students grieve after ‘chaotic’ night on campus

EAST LANSING, Mich. — When the shooting first began at Michigan State University on Monday night, Carl Austin Miller Grondin was trying hard to get in contact with his team, he said.

“They’re my kids. I’m a lot older so I see them like my little brothers,” he said during an interview with Fox 17 on Tuesday. “I called them last night when I heard about everything going on.”

Grondin is the student body vice president for internal administration in student government, and he advises Connor Le and Matthew Zivian.

Due to everything going on Grondin wasn’t able to reach Zivian, he said. He later learned it was because Zivian was sheltering-in-place in a room.

“It started, I was in a room, in a lounge, in Landon [Hall] facing the Union and I just saw waves of people running towards me,” Zivian said. “We were able to get a door open and let a few people into the building and rush people upstairs. I got someone who ran from the Union to the third floor, and we hunkered in a room.”

However, Grondin was able to reach Le who described Monday night’s scene on campus as “crazy.”

“I didn’t think that my Monday night would be me hunkered down for seven hours in a basement as we had to barricade a door to make sure that 20 people inside of Holden Hall were safe, and having to hear the police radios say the potential for there being bombs and shooters at Holden” Le said. “It was scary. It was mortifying.”

However, Tuesday morning the three friends hugged each other for the first time since the shooting broke out that killed three MSU students and left five others in the hospital.

“Chaotic. A little bit scary just because they were having reports of shootings, gunfire, all over campus, whether that was just people screwing around or just paranoia,” recalled junior Denver Rayl. “Kind of hard to say but that was kind of frustrating.”

Rayl said that he first heard about the shooting through an email from MSU police. Quickly, information began spreading on social media about what was happening.

Tuesday afternoon, Rayl was walking with his friends down Michigan Avenue to drop off flowers at one of the growing memorials.

“It’s been very stressful. It’s been a lot to deal with,” said sophomore Marissa Grable, who was holding a bouquet of white tulips in her arms. “I don’t know who’s hurt and my friends are all very stressed out. And, it’s difficult.”

Isa Van Der Weij was on campus when the shooting happened. She said she didn’t hear anything because she had her headphones on. However, when she saw people run out of buildings shouting “shots have been fired,” she decided to walk in the opposite direction.

“It’s a bit crazy because you hear stories about this all the time. Like if something like this happens news travels to the Netherlands,” said Van Der Weij, an international student who recently graduated. “So, it’s a bit crazy to be in it yourself right now.”

The first thing Van Der Weij did was call family back home overseas to let them know she was OK, she said.

Fellow international student Ruth Boamah-Agyekum did the same.

“These situations have always felt like so far from us. We always hear them on the news. But to be in the center of it happening is a different experience altogether,” Boamah-Agyekum said. “I’m still processing it. I’m still talking with the people who have been giving me support, texting me, checking up on me.”

She’s also taking time to pray. Her church Elements Church opened their doors on Michigan Avenue to anyone who wanted to pray and not be alone in the wake of the tragedy.

“Anyone at all whether you’re a believer or not, we are here for you,” she said. “I just got up and just decided to come here because through my pain and through may processing I want to be there for others.”