2 students wounded in MSU shooting file notice of intent to sue for damages

Two Michigan State University students wounded in the Feb. 13 mass shooting have notified the university that they intend to sue for failure to protect their safety, especially in Berkey Hall, the campus building where they were shot.

Troy Forbush and Nate Statly, both of whom were shot and injured in the campus shooting, filed the notices of their intent to sue on Monday in the Michigan Court of Claims.

Forbush and Statly's notifications allege multiple failures by the university that allowed gunman Anthony McRae to gain entry to Berkey Hall, an academic building without locks on classroom doors, and carry out the shooting rampage that left three students dead and Forbush, Statly and three other MSU students severely wounded.

The letters from Forbush and Statly's attorney are addressed to Michigan State University's president, board of trustees, general counsel, department of police and public safety, and the department of infrastructure and planning.

The June 9 letters from the students' Okemos-based lawyer, Mick Grewal, indicate Forbush's injuries were a result of "a defect and/or dangerous condition in Berkey Hall." Statly's letter was submitted through his father, Thomas Statly.

The letters, while they differ in descriptions of the students' injuries, largely posit the same allegations regarding the university's lack of security.

The letters, first reported Monday by the Lansing State Journal, say "upon information and belief," MSU had, prior to the shooting, "received complaints regarding defective safety measures and the lack of restrictions as to the general access of campus buildings, including Berkey Hall."

"Here, the university's decision to ignore complaints — regarding the lack of restrictions, the general and public access to campus buildings, and the failure to correct known defective conditions and security measures — resulted in an unreasonably dangerous risk of injury," Grewal wrote in the letter.

The lawyer alleged MSU leaders did not confront a "reality" that the East Lansing school could be vulnerable to a mass shooting.

"There is no rationale as to why Michigan State University chose to ignore complaints and failed to take any corrective action to remedy the defective conditions. To state otherwise would be to deny the country's present reality," Grewal wrote in the letter.

Police identified the gunman as McRae, a 43-year-old Lansing resident who took his own life on the night of the shooting hours after police found him 3.8 miles from campus.

“Many lives among our community have been profoundly impacted by the violence our campus experienced," MSU spokesman Dan Olsen said when asked to comment on the two students' intent to sue. "We are heartbroken and sorry for the tragic loss of life and each person harmed by senseless gun violence. MSU has been engaged in conversations with the families of those we lost and those injured to identify ways to provide ongoing support, and we are committed to keeping those lines of communication open.” 

Lawsuits against governmental bodies are often difficult to win because of state governmental immunity laws. MSU is considered a state governmental body.

In the November 2021 shooting that killed four Oxford High School students and injured seven other individuals, Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan dismissed all Oxford governmental employees and entities from civil lawsuits relating to the Oxford High shooting by concluding the teenage shooter was the most immediate and direct cause of the mass shooting.

Even if the school district and its employees were grossly negligent in their responses to Crumbley’s behavior, Brennan wrote that legal precedent dictated that “no reasonable trier of fact could conclude that any of the conduct of any of the individual Oxford Defendants was ‘the one most immediate, efficient, and direct cause of the injury or damage’ to the Plaintiffs.”

Government employees in Michigan are not liable for injuries or damages as long as their "conduct does not amount to gross negligence that is the proximate cause of the injury or damage," according to the state Government Tort Liability Act. "The proximate cause" means the most immediate cause of injury or damage, according to legal precedent.

Some Oxford shooting victim parents have called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and state representatives to change the law surrounding government immunity.

More:Gunman bought ammunition a few hours before MSU shooting, police find no 'conclusive' motive

New shooting details emerge

The court filings make public for the first time many details about the tragedy, including the magnitude of Statly's injuries. The 21-year-old Fenton native was shot in the head and the fragments of the bullet remain scattered throughout his brain. The core of the 9mm bullet remains in the center of his brain, according to Grewal's letter.

Statly isn't able to talk, walk, use his arm or leg on the left side of his body or consume whole foods. His right ear and eye are sutured closed, and he has significant and permanent scarring, according to the filing.

He spent nine weeks at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, two days at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, four weeks at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor and has been at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago receiving inpatient care for three weeks.

Previously, Statly was an MSU junior studying environmental biology with a minor in zoology and planned to graduate in spring 2024. He had landed an internship aligning with his studies at a butterfly house on Mackinac Island, according to the court filing. He held a leadership role in the MSU Shotgun Team and was an avid downhill skier, spending many winters working on the slopes.

Now, the court filing says, "Nate's only form of mobility is to be pushed in a wheelchair and has yet to be discharged from the hospital. He anticipates a prolonged period of treatment, recovery, and mental health therapy, which will continue throughout the remainder of his life."

More:Note written by MSU shooter asked 'why,' outlined other targets

Forbush, an MSU junior double majoring in vocal performance and music education, has said he pleaded for his life after seeing McRae standing in the doorway with a gun. Forbrush tried to hide behind chairs, laid on the ground and pleaded for his life.

"Lacking effective use of his muscles, Troy laid motionless on the floor of the classroom, atop the body of Alexandria Verner, one of the three students killed in the on-campus shooting," the filing said.

The massacre claimed the lives of 20-year-old Verner of Clawson, 19-year-old Arielle Anderson of Harper Woods and 20-year-old Brian Fraser of Grosse Pointe.

Marco Díaz-Muñoz, the MSU professor teaching the class Forbush and Statly were in, blocked the door with his foot to prevent the gunman from reentering the room because the door could not be locked from the inside.

"No one knew whether he was going to come in again," Díaz-Muñoz told The Detroit News three days after the shooting. "All I knew was that I needed to close that door."

The shooting resulted in injuries to Forbush's chest cavity and lungs, according to the filing. He suffered significant and permanent scarring after the shooting, and he spent 10 days at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. 

Statly and Forbush were attending an Area Studies Americas lecture in room 114 of Berkey Hall, and they were among eight MSU students who were in the line of fire of the gunman who went on a shooting rampage in Berkey Hall and the MSU union.

More:Police release new timeline for Feb. 13 shooting at MSU

Allegations of gross negligence

Forbush and Statly's court filing alleges MSU acted with gross negligence and failed to take reasonable steps to protect students and visitors from harm. The issues cited include: 

• Allowing open building access to the public during evening hours.
• Failing to install locks on the inside of classroom doors.
• Failing to post employee security guards or patrol officers to monitor access to campus buildings.
• Failing to install lock systems in classrooms that could be activated by instructors and continuing to hold classes in Berkey Hall when it was inadequately temperature-controlled, which required students and faculty to prop doors open to control the temperature.
• Not having enough security cameras to monitor the campus.
• Continuing to use security cameras that couldn't display real-time footage. 
• Failing to use locks that could be engaged remotely and simultaneously on all campus buildings.
• Choosing not to remotely lock campus buildings when university officials could have.
• Not using other mass shooting deterrent technology other universities use.
• Failing to conduct secure-in-place drills in campus buildings.
• Not doing a timely hiring of a qualified consultant to evaluate MSU's readiness to respond to an active shooter.
• Unjustifiably delaying the transmission of emergency messages to the campus community.

Besides Forbush and Statly, three other MSU students were severely injured, including John Hao, a 20-year-old student from China who was paralyzed from the waist down; and Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, a junior who underwent at least one surgery and faced two more. Another victim has not been identified.

Since the shooting, MSU has announced new security measures, such as the adoption of classroom door locks and requiring key cards to access buildings between 6 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. In the past, most campus buildings were open during the day and locked from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Berkey Hall remains closed through the fall semester.

More:911 calls, dispatch logs paint harrowing picture of Michigan State shooting

kkozlowski@detroitnews.com

kberg@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.