The three people killed in a shooting at Michigan State University included a 19-year-old aspiring surgeon and an athlete studying biology.
Their identities were released by police on Tuesday. Five others who were injured in Monday night's attack remain in a critical condition.
All of the victims were students at the university, police said.
Arielle Diamond Anderson, 19, had dreams of becoming a paediatric surgeon.
"She was working diligently to graduate from Michigan State University early to achieve her goals as quickly as possible," her family said in a statement, adding that she "was sweet and loving with an infectious smile that was very contagious".
"We are absolutely devastated by this heinous act of violence upon her and many other innocent victims."
Another of the victims, Alex Verner, graduated from Clawson High School in 2020 with plans to study forensic science and biology.
"Alex was and is incredibly loved by everyone," Superintendent Billy Shellenbarger said in a letter to Clawson Public School families, according to the Detroit Free Press.
"She was a tremendous student, athlete, leader and exemplified kindness every day of her life!... If you knew her, you loved her and we will forever remember the lasting impact she has had on all of us."
Brian Fraser, from Grosse Pointe, was in his second year at the university and was studying business.
He was also the chapter president of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
"Brian was our leader, and we loved him," a Phi Delta Theta social media post read.
"He cared deeply about his Phi Delt brothers, his family, Michigan State University and Phi Delta Theta. We will greatly miss Brian and mourn his death deeply as our chapter supports each other during this difficult time."
Jennifer Mancini had just spent the past year helping her daughter heal from a traumatic high school shooting in Oxford, Michigan when she got a call that her daughter was in the midst of yet another episode of gun violence.
Ms Mancini said her daughter heard the gunshots from across the street. She told her to turn the lights off, lock the door and stay silent.
Meanwhile, Ms Mancini thought: "I can't believe this is happening again," she told the Detroit Free Press.
Ms Mancini's daughter, who she declined to name for privacy reasons, was one of several students on the East Lansing campus who witnessed the second school shooting of their lifetime on Monday.
Students who were on campus during the attack described a sense of panic as they jumped out of windows, hid in corners and sprinted out of buildings to avoid the gunman.
Another student, Jackie Matthews, said it had been ten years since she witnessed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newton, Connecticut, which killed 26 people.
In a video, the student said she suffers from a chronic lower back injury from crouching in the corner with her classmates to seek shelter during the elementary school attack.
"I am 21 years old," the student said in the video. "The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible."
"We can no longer just provide love and prayers," she added. "It needs to be legislation... We can no longer allow this to happen."
To Jane Nodland, a 22-year-old nursing student, it sounded like a stampede. "I thought I was going to die," Ms Nodland told the New York Times. "It sounded like he was right there."
Police have yet to identify a motive. The 43-year-old suspect, Anthony McRae, had no ties to the university and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
For some students, Monday marked the second time they witnessed school gun violence in less than two years.
Ms Mancini said her daughter lost two of her close friends in a shooting at Oxford High School on 30 November 2021, when a 15-year-old killed four students and injured seven people.
Andrea Ferguson's daughter was also on school grounds in Oxford during the shooting, she told local outlet WDIV. She said several of her daughter's friends who survived the Oxford shooting were on the Michigan State University campus on Monday.
"I never expected in my lifetime to have to experience two school shootings," Ms Ferguson said. "It was like reliving Oxford all over again."