Feb. 16, 2023 Video footage shows Lansing police arresting accused Michigan State University gunman Anthony McRae nearly four years ago after found a concealed handgun.
By Robert Snell Source The Detroit News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Body cam footage from nearly four years ago shows Anthony McRae being arrested after an officer discovered a concealed handgun in a criminal case that raised questions about whether police violated the constitutional rights of a Lansing man who on Monday was accused of shooting and killing three Michigan State University students.
The Lansing Police footage, released Wednesday, chronicles a mundane interaction that would draw new scrutiny this week after McRae went on a deadly rampage on campus before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The body cam footage illustrates legal arguments leveled by McRae’s lawyer in the months after the arrest that Lansing Police had no basis to conduct a warrantless search of McRae and asked Ingham Circuit Court Judge James Jamo to suppress the firearm. Ten days after McRae’s lawyer tried to suppress the gun, prosecutors agreed to drop the felony and McRae pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor.
The footage was released following a Freedom of Information Act request by The Detroit News, two days after the shooting spree at MSU that also injured five others. The News obtained the footage amid criticism of why Ingham County prosecutors dropped a felony charge that carried a potential penalty of five years in prison and let McRae plead guilty to a misdemeanor that let him continue to legally possess firearms — and avoid prison.
The footage starts as Officer James Zolnai approaches McRae in the parking lot of an abandoned commercial building on Lansing’s north side at approximately 3 a.m. on June 7, 2019.
“How you doing?” Zolnai says at the start of the 18-minute video as he approaches McRae. “You got any weapons on you right now?”
“Huh?” McRae says, fishing a pack of Newport cigarettes from the breast pocket of his coat.
“You got any weapons on you or anything like that?” the officer says.
McRae, who is standing next to a bicycle, looks off-camera and pauses.
“Yeah,” he says.
“You have a weapon on you?” the officer says.
“Yeah,” McRae says.
McRae said he had a .380-caliber handgun before the officer placed him in handcuffs.
The officer asks McRae if he has a concealed pistol license.
“I’m working on it,” McRae says as he is being placed in handcuffs.
He tells the officer the handgun is in his pocket and that it is registered.
McRae’s lawyer, Jacob Sartz, later wrote in a motion to suppress the firearm information: “Officer Zolnai lacked reasonable suspicion to even question defendant about possessing any alleged weapons or to detain him. (McRae) was not free to leave while Officer Zolnai questioned and detained him. Officer Zolnai’s conduct amounted to a seizure requiring probable cause.”
In a separate video provided by the prosecutor’s office, McRae is heard asking an officer as they’re driving to the Lansing lockup whether his gun will be taken away.
“The gun’s gonna be seized as evidence at this point,” the officer said. “And then what happens with it after that is going to be up to the prosecuting attorney.”
McRae was charged with carrying a concealed pistol without a concealed carry permit, according to Ingham County court records.
In October 2019, Ingham County prosecutors added a second charge against McRae: possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.
That same month, October 2019, McRae agreed to plead guilty to the lesser misdemeanor charge, and prosecutors dismissed the felony.
Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane, who was appointed to his position in December, argued that, even if McRae had been convicted on the original charge, he would have avoided jail or prison time because sentencing guidelines for the two charges are similar and would have resulted in a recommendation against incarceration.
“The sentencing guideline score would have been the same if he had been convicted of either the original charge (Carrying a Concealed Weapon) or the offense for which he was convicted (carrying a firearm in a vehicle),” Dewane said in a statement.
McRae was sentenced in November 2019 to 12 months of probation.
In October 2020, six additional months were added to his probation, according to court records. The additional months were meant to allow him to complete the terms of the probation order, the records said.
McRae’s probation period concluded in May 2021.
McRae was barred from having a weapon “of any type” during the term of his probation, according to a Nov. 26, 2019, court order.
Michigan law generally limits the ability of individuals convicted of felonies to possess firearms.
McRae’s father, Michael McRae, previously told The News that he believes his son bought the weapon he used in Monday’s fatal campus shooting at a local pawn shop.