After his mother died of a stroke two years ago, the Michigan State shooter became mean, aggressive, father Michael McRae told CNN on Tuesday morning. Isolation and “evil rage”.
“Since my wife passed away, my son started to change,” Michael McRae said. “He was getting more and more miserable. Angry and bitter. So angry. Angry…he started to really let himself go. His teeth fell out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a werewolf.”
antony dwayne McRae, 43, lives with his father in a small house in Lansing, Michigan. His father said his son couldn’t find work and didn’t find work, but had previously worked in a warehouse for about seven years loading refrigerators onto trucks.
Michael McRae said about 30 police officers arrived at his home and checked his son’s bedroom after a shooting Monday night that left three people dead and five others wounded.
Michael McRae said his son became isolated after the death of his mother Linda. After her death, he said his son was “lost, totally lost”.
“He doesn’t care about anything anymore. He won’t talk to me or anyone,” McRae said, adding that his son would spend hours on end playing video games in his bedroom.
“He’d just come out to go to the kitchen or go to the bathroom, and then he’d go right back,” senior McRae said.
Michael McRae said he had become very concerned about his son, but when he suggested that Anthony McRae see a doctor, his son refused.
“If I tried to get him to help, he would get mad,” he said. “I tried to help him. He would close the door. He would stay in his room a lot.”
“I don’t want to get in trouble – he’s going to be mad at me,” he added.
McRae said his son had a gun years ago but it was taken by police. McRae Jr. pleaded guilty to gun charges in 2019, court documents show. The father said he believed his son had obtained another gun, but kept it in his room and denied to his father that he had it.
McRae said his son’s mood changes quickly and he doesn’t talk to his father when he’s angry.
“I don’t know what happened to make him like this,” he said.
“He would treat me like an invisible man. I would ask, ‘Why are you doing this to me? What have I done?'” he said.