Michigan gunman Anthony McRae turned ‘evil’ after mom died

The crazed man who killed three Michigan State University students and critically injured five others Monday sank into a deep depression that made him “evil” after his mother died in 2020, his dad said.

Police said there is no clear motive for gunman Anthony Dwayne McRae’s violent rampage, but his father described his dark spiral in the past two years in an interview with NBC News Tuesday morning.

“He was a mama’s boy. He loved his mom. They were tight. His mom was like his sister,” said Michael McRae, who lived with his son in Michigan.

“He was grieving his mom. He wouldn’t let it go. He got bitter, bitter and bitter.

“His mom died, and he just started getting evil and mean. He didn’t care about anything anymore,” the dad continued.

McRae, 43, refused to leave his room and quit his job after his mother, Linda Gail McRae, died suddenly on Sept. 13, 2020, from a stroke. 

After he was sentenced to 18 months of probation for possessing a loaded firearm in 2019, Michael told his son “we don’t need no guns in this house.” 

“I said, ‘I hope you got rid of that gun, man.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I got rid of it. I got rid it,’” the dad said. “He didn’t.”

“He kept lying to me about it and told me he got rid of it,” the dad said in a separate interview with the Washington Post. “He never let me in the room to show me the gun,” the father said. “If he showed it to me, I would have put it in the garbage.”

Michael McRae said that he once heard gunshots in his backyard and saw bullet casings in the lawn — but his son insisted it was fireworks.

Police said it remains unclear why McRae targeted the state university. His father said he also was unsure, but mentioned that his son might have been applying for a job there.

The gunman’s brother, also named Michael, told the Detroit Free Press he doesn’t “have a clue” why Anthony shot up Michigan State.

“This just don’t seem real, that he would be able to do anything like this,” Michael McRae Jr., 45, said “I am still trying to process this whole thing.”

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He added that he hasn’t spoken to his younger brother since his mom’s funeral more than two years ago, when the brothers had an exchange that was “not good.”

“He stayed to himself,” the gunman’s older brother said. “He kind of secluded himself,” calling him “a loner.”

“I am deeply sorry for this whole thing,” he said.

Michigan State University community reacts to mass shooting on campus

“I really don’t believe it, but I know it’s true,” the distraught dad said of his son’s actions.

“He wasn’t like that,” he said. “He was no danger to nobody like that. He never did anything crazy like this.”