Seven people were shot Sunday at a birthday party in La Jolla, Calif., including 24-year-old MSU graduate and former Ann Arbor resident Charnee James.
The shooting happened when a man fired a handgun from a poolside chair, according to sources in an article by the Lansing State Journal.
James was allegedly shot in both legs and fell when her cousin, Haley Thames, went to go help her. Others proceeded to help James to safety.
The suspect in the shooting, 49-year-old Peter Selis, shot three men and four women — one fatally —before being killed by police.
According to USA Today, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman claimed Selis was discouraged over a breakup with his girlfriend and also faced massive debts.
In April, James arrived in San Diego, plans in hand to move there. After the shooting, her relatives had problems contacting her through the hospital.
According to James' grandfather Emmuel Gullatt, as reported by LSJ, James was supposed to start a job at Z57, an online marketing company based in San Diego, on Monday. Instead, she must recover from surgery to repair veins in one of her legs.
Her mother, Stacy Gullatt, arrived by James' side Monday night. She said she believed the shooting was racially charged and that her daughter was targeted by the white shooter.
USA Today reported one victim was Latino, and the rest were black, but race was not a factor according to Zimmerman.
James graduated from MSU in May 2014 with a political science degree. She started working in customer service for Quicken Loans. She decided she wanted to pursue her dream of working in fashion, so she took a multitude of jobs in the business with her sights on getting to California or New York, according to LSJ.
Stacy Gullatt said James will likely come back home to recover.
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