Here’s what we know so far about the people killed.
Alexandria Verner
Verner, a junior at MSU, was a three-sport high school athlete whom her father described as a “beautiful soul.”
She played basketball, volleyball and softball all four years of high school, her father, Ted Verner, said. He said the girls’ basketball team at her alma mater, Detroit-area Clawson High School, plans to show a tribute to Alex Verner on Tuesday evening.
“It’s going to be my mission in life to make sure that families don’t go what we went through,” Ted Verner said of his loss.
Verner, 20, graduated from Clawson High in 2020 and was known as a “tremendous student, athlete, [and] leader,” Clawson Public Schools Superintendent Billy Shellenbarger wrote in a letter to the district community. Verner exemplified kindness, he wrote, and is mourned by her parents, her sister and her brother.
“Alex was and is incredibly loved by everyone,” Shellenbarger wrote. “If you knew her, you loved her and we will forever remember the lasting impact she has had on all of us.”
Arielle Anderson
Arielle Anderson was a junior at MSU. She graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School and wanted to be a pediatrician one day, a family member told ABC affiliate WXYZ. Anderson’s uncle, Tim Davis, described her as kindhearted.
“She was just sweet and innocent,” Davis told the Detroit News. “She was soft-spoken, always helpful. In my opinion, she was just perfect the way she conducted herself. She had great manners and was respectful. She was very smart, a straight-A student. I’m pretty sure you will hear that from everybody.”
Anderson’s maternal grandmother, April Davis, described her granddaughter as “kind, loving, caring, compassionate, driven,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
Brian Fraser
Brian Fraser was a sophomore from Grosse Pointe who played varsity lacrosse in high school.
He was the chapter president of the Michigan Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Michigan State. Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity said in a statement Tuesday that they were devastated to learn of his death. The fraternity also said in their statement: “As the leader of his chapter, Brian was a great friend to his Phi Delt brothers, the Greek community at Michigan State, and those he interacted with on campus.”
Jon Dean, the superintendent of the Grosse Pointe Public School System, wrote to the school community that his heart broke Monday night when he learned of the shooting, but that he had learned Tuesday that the loss was even more personal. “Earlier this morning I learned that both Grosse Pointe North and South each have a recent graduate that died from their injuries last night at MSU,” he wrote. “I can’t even process what I just wrote. How can we have our community impacted in this personal way?”
Fraser’s sister, Micaela, told the Detroit Free Press that he was a light in their family’s lives.