East Lansing Is a City In Grief; Counseling Offered at Hannah
“The City of East Lansing is mourning the devastating shooting that occurred on the campus of Michigan State University tonight,” said Interim East Lansing City Manager Randy Talifarro in a press release issued by the city’s communication department at about 2 a.m. this morning. “Our hearts go out to all of the victims of this horrific act of violence as well as their family and friends.”
Counseling will be offered today at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, while many city offices and the public schools are closed. MSU has cancelled all activities including classes today and tomorrow.
Starting shortly after 8 p.m. last night, a lone gunman targeted people at MSU’s Berkey Hall and Union building, which sit on Grand River Avenue on the north end of campus. Three people were killed and at least five others wounded, three of them critically.
The assailant is reported to have killed himself by gunfire around midnight near the intersection of Lake Lansing Road and Larch Street in Lansing.
Monday marked Talifarro’s first day on the job as the top employee of the city.
A former East Lansing fire chief, Talifarro was named by City Council to the position of interim city manager on Jan. 17, right after Council voted to terminate the contract of George Lahanas.
Council gave Talifarro until Monday, Feb. 13, to start, because he had to move back from out of state to take the position.
Talifarro’s press release announced drop-in counseling services will be available for the community today at the Hannah Community Center starting at 9 a.m., which will be when the building opens.
Because MSU’s campus has shut down for the next two days, members of the campus community are also being directed to Hannah, a building named after John Hannah, former president of MSU. Dozens of counselors are expected to be available.
“East Lansing and MSU have always shared in each other’s victories and each other’s losses,” Talifarro said in his public statement today, his first statement in office. “Tonight, we hold space while we grapple with this devastating loss of life together.”
City offices will be closed to the public today, Tuesday, Feb. 14.
That includes most of City Hall, the public library, the senior program known as Prime Time, the 54B District Court and the Department of Public Works. The East Lansing Public Schools (and many surrounding districts) are also shut down on Tuesday.
The city has not yet announced whether Tuesday evening’s scheduled City Council meeting will be postponed. (Update, Feb. 14, 10:30 a.m.: Tonight’s City Council meeting has been cancelled.)
East Lansing Police officers will again be on the job today, working alongside MSU police and other colleagues on multiple crime scenes.
In their statements, Talifarro and the MSU Board of Trustees publicly thanked first responders who, in Talifarro’s words, “ran towards the sound of danger, seeking not their own wellbeing, but instead to protect and serve those in need.”
The East Lansing community was already beset by unusual levels of turmoil and strife before the killings on Monday night.
Besides the recent termination of the contract of a city manager who has served for a decade, East Lansing’s City Hall has been rocked by a wave of top employee resignations. Even the public library has been mired in controversy.
The ELPS school board, too, has been undergoing turmoil within its leadership. Before last night’s Board of Education meeting was suspended due to the emergency alerts, now-President Terah Chambers announced the resignation of ELPS Trustee Debbie Walton from the board.
New officers had to be elected at yesterday’s meeting – with Elizabeth Lyons now vice president, Kath Edsall back as treasurer, and Tali Faris-Hylen as secretary – and the board was subject to another round of criticism in public comment. Then, everything stopped as alerts were issued and the high school, where the meeting was being held, went into shelter-in-place along with the rest of the city.
For the East Lansing community, last night’s killings on the north side of MSU’s campus take the level of stress, grief, and disruption to a whole new level of pain, now bridging Grand River Avenue.
While the MSU Trustees issued a statement specifically speaking of and to “the entire Spartan community,” Talifarro spoke of and to everyone in the town-gown nexus that is East Lansing.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone impacted by tonight’s events,” said Talifarro. “Please know that you’re not alone in your grief. We stand with you and will be here as we seek to heal as a community.”