Michigan State University shooter ID’d as Anthony Dwayne McRae

( NYPost )

The mass shooter who killed three students and left five others in critical condition at Michigan State University was identified Tuesday as a 43-year-old local man who was previously busted with a loaded gun.

Anthony Dwayne McRae was IDed after he was found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound at 11:35 p.m., just over three hours after he first opened fire at the East Lansing campus.

Cops again confirmed that he had no apparent connection to the university or a clear motive for the “heinous” attack.

The killer was found with a weapon, police said, without detailing what it was.

McRae was finally tracked down after a local resident called a tip line during the more than three hours he was hunted after shooting up two locations at the school, officials said.

Records show he was arrested in June 2019 with a suspected loaded firearm in his car.

His late mother, Linda Gail McRae, was originally from Trenton, New Jersey, and “enjoyed worshipping and talking about the Lord, working in the church” and “caring for others,” an obit shows.

She died on Sept. 13, 2020, in Sparrow Hospital — the same Lansing hospital treating the five injured by her crazed son.

Trauma surgeon Denny Martin broke down at Tuesday’s press conference as he detailed treating the five injured, all of whom remain in critical condition Tuesday.

All five were students, as were the three killed, officials said, without identifying any.

Shots were fired in two locations on the sprawling East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

McRae first started shooting inside an academic building called Berkey Hall, where two of the dead were found.

MSU Police Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman said “there was an absolutely overwhelming police response” with “officers in that building within minutes.”

As they treated the injured, officers started getting calls of shots fired at the nearby MSU Union building, which houses a student dining hall, where a third fatality was found.

One survivor told the “Today” show early Tuesday that the gunman had been silent when he burst through the back door of her classroom and started shooting at the 20 or so students inside.

Claire Papoulias recalled hearing “three or four gunshots directly behind” her head, immediately dropping to the floor as someone yelled that there was a shooter.

“At that moment, I thought I was gonna die. I was so scared,” she told the NBC breakfast show, praising other students for heroically racing to smash open windows to help them flee.

During the carnage, she called her mom, Natalie Papoulias, who “heard about three gunshots and screaming” on Claire’s end.

“It was my worst nightmare,” the mom said, adding she felt her legs would give way as she rushed to get in her car to race to the campus.

“I mean, I feel like she literally like dodged a bullet.”

Videos posted online showed swarms of terrified students running across the campus as officers tried to take command of the chaotic scene.

Following the first report of shots fired, students and staff at the school were ordered to “secure in place,” authorities said.

University police on Monday night sent out an alert warning the campus community to “Run, Hide, Fight.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she had called President Biden over the shooting, which she called “a weekly American problem.”

“We are all broken by an all too familiar feeling,” she said, adding: “We cannot keep going on like this.”