Michigan State settles with three survivors of 2023 mass shooting on campus
EAST LANSING ― Three victims of the 2023 mass shooting at Michigan State University have settled with the university for $29.75 million, nearly two years after taking legal action against the school.
Attorneys Mick Grewal and Scott Weidenfeller, of Okemos-based Grewal Law, and William Azkoul, of Gruel Mills Nims & Pylman law firm in Grand Rapids, announced the settlements June 10 for three of the five people wounded in the shooting: Nate Statly, Yukai "John" Hao and Troy Forbush. Grewal Law represented Statly and Forbush, and Azkoul represented Hao.
MSU did not immediately comment. The school's Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet Friday.
The settlements include $14.25 million for Statly, who was a junior studying environmental biology and zoology. He was shot in the head and requires extensive medical treatment and ongoing care, his attorneys said.
Hao, a junior studying economics, was paralyzed from the chest down after surviving a gunshot wound to his back and agreed to a $13 million settlement. MSU also agreed to cover Hao's tuition, room and board and health insurance for the remainder of his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MSU.
Forbush will receive $2.5 million after surviving a gunshot wound to the chest that resulted in a serious lung injury. Forbush was a junior pursuing a double major in music education and vocal performance at the time of the shooting.
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Michigan State University negotiated a $15 million settlement in January 2024 with the families of the three students who were killed in the shooting that took place at the MSU Student Union and Berkey Hall. The families or estates of Alexandria Verner, Arielle Anderson, and Brian Fraser each received $5 million.
Hanyang Tao, another student who was shot in the back, filed a notice of intent to sue the university in the Michigan Court of Claims in June 2023. No subsequent filings were publicly available.
Student Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez has not taken any public legal action against the university. She was shot twice and suffered damage to her lungs, colon, stomach and diaphragm, her sister Selena Huapilla-Perez said in 2023.
Justin Bowman, a former student who was in a room of Berkey Hall where the gunman opened fire, sued the university one day before the two-year anniversary of the shooting. In his lawsuit, he claimed the mass shooting was "entirely preventable," and that the actions of former interim President Teresa Woodruff and former Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch made the campus unsafe for students. Bowman and the university settled in April, and terms of the settlement were not made publicly available and have not yet been released by the university.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com. Follow her on X @sarahmatwood.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU settles with three survivors of 2023 mass shooting on campus
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