DETROIT (AP) — Hundreds of people filled a church Tuesday for the funeral of a 19-year-old Detroit-area woman, an aspiring doctor who was one of three students fatally shot last week at Michigan State University.
Arielle Anderson’s casket was flanked by flowers — one formed an “A” — and large photos of her, from childhood to young adulthood. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer described her as someone with “quiet confidence” and “loud compassion.”
“Her future was robbed from her by a senseless act of violence. It’s not fair,” Whitmer told mourners at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit.
Rema Vassar, chair of Michigan State’s governing board, referred to the morning winter weather.
“Michigan doesn’t get many sunny days, but the sun came out today. … You know diamonds are forever. And she lives forever,” Vassar said.
Anderson, she added, is “forever a Spartan.”
The funeral was the last for the three students who were killed Feb. 13 when a gunman fired at Berkey Hall and at the MSU Union. Services were held Saturday for Brian Fraser, 20, who, like Anderson, graduated from a Grosse Pointe high school, and Alexandria Verner, 20, of Clawson.
Anderson wanted to graduate from college as soon as possible on her way to becoming a surgeon, her family said last week. She loved photography and had won awards for her work from the Detroit Institute of Arts and the College for Creative Studies.
Anderson spent her summers working at senior citizens’ homes, helping the elderly. She would have been 20 years old in June.
