The Michigan State University community in East Lansing continues to mourn the lives lost in Monday night's deadly shooting, reeling along with students deeply impacted by the tragedy.
Signs on the doors of businesses along one of the main streets all had a similar message: "Closed for the day due to the tragedy on MSU’s campus."
Three people were killed and five others were injured in the shooting. The suspect was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after the gunfire first erupted. Authorities said he had no ties to the university.
“We wanted our employees to be safe," said Susan Secord, general manager of For Crepes Sake, "and the decision came from me and my owners to stay closed and ... to have a mental health day and everybody check in to make sure everyone was doing OK."
On Wednesday morning, For Crêpes Sake made the difficult decision to reopen. Most of their MSU student employees however are still off work, and Secord said she hasn’t seen this normally bustling area of the city so desolate.
“It’s been a ghost town out here," Secord said. "Very sad. Not the same upbeat spirits we normally have, but it’s something we all can accomplish together.”
Around the corner, Foster Coffee was open Tuesday after the tragedy, although they made the decision to open later than normal. Their company motto is "fostering community through coffee," and at a time like this they’re part of the healing process one cup at a time.
“Come Tuesday morning we just felt the responsibility of actually fulfilling the slogan of actually just bringing a place where community can happen,” said manager Keagan Semlow.
And community did happen with each latte served. Staff started taking customers orders with a simple question: How are YOU doing today?
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“Tuesday was very hard," Semlow added. "It was heavy. You left and felt the heaviness of the day because there’s people; they come here and there’s nobody asking them how they’re actually doing, and that’s a point we made to fulfill at the registers.”
It’s all part of the healing process which continues tonight on campus. At The Rock, as the memorial grows, MSU students and the community joined together Wednesday evening for a vigil.
