CNN — 

The gunman who killed three Michigan State University students and left five others in critical condition may have had plans to target two schools in New Jersey, police there said, as those on the East Lansing campus and beyond reeled from yet another US mass shooting.

Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43 – who had no known ties to the university – opened fire Monday evening on two parts of campus, MSU police said. He was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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When McRae was found by police in Michigan, “he had a note in his pocket that indicated a threat to two Ewing Public Schools,” the New Jersey city’s police department said Tuesday. MSU police confirmed McRae had a note, and Ewing police said local schools no longer faced a threat.

Like so many scenes of carnage at US schools, the deadly rampage at MSU forced students to jump out windows and run for their lives. Claire Papoulias was in history class when “all of sudden I heard gunshots directly behind me,” the sophomore told CNN on Tuesday.

“The shooter opened the back classroom door and started firing at my classmates in the back, wounding them. I smelled and saw the gunpowder,” Papoulias said. “I thought I was going to die.”

When the gunman stepped out of the classroom – leaving the door wide open – some students bravely smashed a window and helped others jump out of the first-floor classroom, Papoulias said.