MSU Pays $10 Million to Families of Two Students Killed in February 2023 Campus Shooting
After trial: $5 million per family.
Won by Ven Johnson Law, PLC.
Michigan State University agreed to pay $5 million each to the families of Arielle Anderson and Brian Fraser, two of the three students shot and killed on campus on February 13, 2023, with Ven Johnson negotiating both settlements before any lawsuit was filed.
What happened
On the evening of February 13, 2023, a gunman opened fire inside Berkey Hall and the MSU Union on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing. Three students were killed: Arielle Diamond Anderson, 19, of Harper Woods; Brian Fraser, 20, of Grosse Pointe Park; and Alexandria Verner, 20, of Clawson. Five other students were wounded.
The Anderson and Fraser families retained Ven Johnson to pursue legal accountability against the university. The core claim was that MSU's security measures were inadequate and that the gunman was able to enter campus buildings without any university identification. Those allegations formed the basis of pre-lawsuit negotiations that Johnson conducted directly with MSU General Counsel Brian Quinn.
In December 2023, after months of negotiations, MSU's Board of Trustees unanimously approved settlements totaling $15 million across all three families. The Anderson and Fraser families each received $5 million, with Johnson representing both. A third family, the Verners, received an equal $5 million through separate counsel.
The settlements were reached before any formal lawsuit was filed. MSU denied wrongdoing or legal liability as a condition of the agreements. Johnson acknowledged that limit but noted the university 'has done the right thing' in providing compensation to families who suffered what he called 'the unspeakable loss of their children.'
All three settlement payments were approved by the MSU Board of Trustees in December 2023.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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