A survivor of the Michigan State University shooting has shared a heart-breaking diary entry about being caught up in the tragedy.
Marcy Creevy posted a clip to TikTok to read the harrowing extract about her experience on the MSU campus earlier this month.
The student, 19, made it clear that she was not sharing the insight ‘for sympathy’ but instead did not want ‘to let evil win.’
Gunman Anthony McRae killed three people and wounded five more on February 13 before fatally shooting himself after an hours-long manhunt at the university.
Marcy Creevy posted a clip to TikTok to read the harrowing extract about her experience on the MSU campus earlier this month
The student made it clear that she was not sharing the insight ‘for sympathy’ but instead did not want ‘to let evil win’
In the TikTok video, which has so far been viewed more than 5.3 million times, Marcy sits alone in her room in an MSU sweater.
She speaks to camera as she begins: ‘I am really not sure how to start this video, I really don’t know what to say but I wanted to get on here and use the platform that I have.’
The student then picks up her diary in which she documented the events that happened at the campus on February 13.
Marcy shares: ‘I’m not looking for sympathy or anything like that, I’m just trying to share my story about what I went through because the sad truth of it is that maybe it could educate or help someone in the future if they have to go through what we had to go through that night.’
Opening the diary she reads how she had been studying on the second floor of the university’s Union building from around 8pm.
She reads: ’20 minutes later, the room I was in illuminated with red and blue lights. I peered out the window thinking maybe there was just a minor accident. I went back to my study area, picked up my phone and saw a text from my best friend Hailey that read “don’t go outside.”
‘I went back to the window and looked down further to see cops on the lawn with their rifles pointing at the building I was in.’
Marcy continues: ‘I heard a woman scream “shooter” and run down the hallway. You know when you can hear the fear in someone’s voice – it was just like that, screaming bloody murder…
The 19-year-old shared extracts from her diary in which she documented the events that happened at the MSU campus on February 13
Opening the diary, she reads how she had been studying on the second floor of the university’s Union building from around 8pm
‘From there my fight or flight kicked in. I still can’t comprehend how my body knew exactly what to do while all my heart wanted to do was cry, scream and break.
‘I turned the lights off, ran to the other room, shut the doors and turned those lights off.
‘Four others appeared from the other room and that’s when I told everyone to get behind the wall and under the table.’
Marcy said that she immediately thought of her family. She pulled her phone out, wanting to call her mom ‘to hear her voice,’ but said she did not want to make noise.
The youngster begins to get emotional as she reveals: ‘I was completely frozen, I felt empty – not scared, nothing.’
She said she comforted the others in the room and repeatedly told them ‘we’re going to be okay, I promise you, please just trust me.’
Marcy, who begins fighting back the tears in the clip, perseveres: ‘I realized I needed to do something. I checked my phone to see my dad’s first text which read “be smart, always give yourself an out.”‘
She said she then began barricading the doors. ‘I stood up… I ran to the doors of the room and began pushing a table. At that point I heard a deep man’s voice yelling from the hallway – the shooter.’
The student tried to remain level-headed: ‘I sat there still calm planning on what I was going to do when the shooter entered. My first thought was that I would play dead – this is what my mom always taught me.
Marcy’s voice wavered and her eyes filled with tears before she apologized and temporarily cut off the camera
In her video, Marcy concluded: ‘The past 12 pages have encapsulated my story, but the past 12 pages will never encapsulate the emotions behind it’
She said the group eventually took refuge at a restaurant across the street where Marcy called her parents, staying on the phone with them for the next hour
Marcy posted the video alongside a caption that read: ‘Everyone has a story, this is just part of mine and it’s okay to wear your emotions on your sleeve’
‘But then I thought to myself he would actually have to shoot someone first if I could play dead.’
Marcy’s voice wavers and her eyes fill with tears before she apologizes and temporarily cuts off the camera.
She returns and reads: ‘Knowing myself and how I face violence I was going to defend as hard as I could – my mom would have hated me for that, to defend and fight back rather than thinking extremely tactically.’
Marcy goes on: ‘At that point the doors started to have banging on them. “No one move,” I said. We all assumed it was the cops coming to find us but from the stories I’ve heard and watched I wasn’t going to move or speak until I physically saw a cop in front of us.
‘Flashlights appeared on the wall in front of us. A man turned the corner and his flashlight hit our faces. [He said]: “I got kids, I got some, I have seven.”
‘Another cop appeared around the corner… he was stern but he was scared – I just knew it.’
Speaking about finally seeing the police officers, she said: ‘That’s when I lost it. It was as if I had been holding my breath for the last 22 minutes. As if I wasn’t taking anything in. And when I raised my hands above my head, I could finally breathe again.’
Marcy said that the group were escorted out by armed police officers who were lining the stairwells but when they reached the outside the students just ran.
She said the group eventually took refuge at a restaurant across the street where Marcy called her parents, staying on the phone with them for the next hour.
Anthony McRae, 43, opened fire at Berkeley Hall before shooting at MSU Union, killing three students and leaving four students in critical condition
Police walk around Berkey Hall after the shooting on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing, Michigan
Marcy concluded: ‘The past 12 pages have encapsulated my story, but the past 12 pages will never encapsulate the emotions behind it.
‘And that’s okay because there are six others that were physically right there with me and thousands of others whose lives will be forever changed – yet we’re all still right there, altogether.
‘I will not let an evil person take away from the place that I call home. I will never let the evil win.’
She posted the video alongside a caption that read: ‘Everyone has a story, this is just part of mine. And it’s okay to wear your emotions on your sleeve.’
During the MSU shooting, gunman Anthony McRae, 45, strode into an academic building named Berkey Hall at 8.18 pm, blasting indiscriminately at the occupants.
Two people died at the scene and three others sustained serious injuries.
Police descended in response to a torrent of urgent 911 calls but the killer had already left the premises, heading west out of the building and skulking along campus roads as he hunted for his next victims.
Less than 15 minutes later, gunshots were reported at the MSU Union building, a popular spot for students to eat, drink and study just a 10-minute walk from Berkey Hall.
One more person was killed at the MSU Union and two more were injured.
McRae terrorized the campus for a total of nearly four hours but killed himself before police were able to get to him.
Two of McRae’s victims have been named as Alexandria Verner and Brian Fraser. The family of the third victim have asked for their name not to be published.
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