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Fundraiser for MSU student Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez raises more than $260,000 after shooting

Lansing State Journal

A fundraiser for Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez has raised more than $260,000. The Michigan State University student was one of the five students critically injured in the shooting on MSU's campus Monday night, according to her sister. GoFundMe has verified the account.

EAST LANSING - Less than two days after three Michigan State University students were killed in a mass shooting on its campus, an online fundraiser for injured Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez has raised more than $260,000.

Though MSU police have said they "will not be confirming" the names of the five students critically injured in the Monday shooting, Huapilla-Perez, a junior at MSU studying hospitality business, is one of them, according to her sister Selena Huapilla-Perez.

Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez and the four others injured remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Huapilla-Perez is a student in the university's College Assistance Migrant Program, Selena Huapilla-Perez said on the fundraiser's page, through GoFundMe.

"She is a leader in the community and beyond," Selena Huapilla-Perez said. "Lupe is incredibly hard-working, focused, and ambitious, choosing a career path that's never been explored in our family."

Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez's family, migrants who live in Florida, "immediately traveled to Michigan to be with Lupe and are now eyeing costs that will further burden us at this incredibly difficult time," Selena Huapilla-Perez said. "She is a long way from returning to us as she was."

More than 6,000 donations were made and over $260,000 was raised through the fundraiser by Wednesday afternoon.

"Doctors tell us that even in improving conditions, the process for a full recovery will take months of care and subsequent rehabilitation," Selena Huapilla-Perez said.

GoFundMe has verified the validity of the account, according to the platform.

It's one of two fundraisers connected to the MSU shooting on the site that the platform has verified. The other is a fundraiser for local dispatcher Aimee Barajas, who was working the night of the shooting. It has raised over $3,000. Find them both here.

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Ese Esan, communications manager for GoFundMe, said the platform "proactively monitors and verifies fundraisers" during disasters and other crises.

There's a review process for ensuring accounts are trustworthy, Esan said in an email.

"This process includes both a robust human review from our world-class Trust & Safety experts as well as technical tools designed to catch misuse," she said. "It must also be clear who the organizer is, as well as the person, business, or charity they are raising funds for, the organizer’s relationship to the recipient of the funds, and how the funds will be used."

Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .