Michigan State shooting victim John Hao of China paralyzed by bullet

• John Hao, 20, a junior from China, is paralyzed from the chest down after being shot in the back during the MSU mass shootings 
• His roommate started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay Hao’s medical bills and help his parents, who flew in from China
•  The family of another hospitalized student filed a similar fundraising appeal earlier this week  

May 11: MSU shooting 911 calls: McRae spotted in minutes; false tips prolonged ordeal
March 3: Michigan State shooting victims: Two more students released from hospital

Another Michigan State University student critically injured in last Monday’s mass shooting has been publicly identified. John Hao, 20, from China, was struck by a bullet in his back, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. 

The information on Hao, a junior, was provided by his longtime roommate Argent Qian, who has organized a GoFundMe fundraising appeal on Hao’s behalf. The account went live Saturday.

In a phone interview Saturday, Qian told Bridge Michigan he was in the process of getting the account verified by GoFundMe, so it can be listed alongside other verified accounts mostly tied to students killed or injured in the campus attack. By Sunday morning, donations to the Hao account exceeded $350,000.

Related:

• Classroom locks, active intruder training promised after MSU shootings
• Michigan State shooting: Alerts to students delayed as police rushed to campus
• MSU shooting: fourth victim identified, discharged from hospital
• On ‘Spartan Stronger’ website, Michigan State students process their grief
• Michigan State shootings: MSU to pay victims’ hospital bills, funeral costs
• Michigan State University school shooting: How to help victims of attack

Qian said in the fundraising appeal that a bullet severed Hao’s spinal cord and critically injured his lung. 

Qian said in the interview he learned the precise details of the injuries because he accompanied Hao’s parents, who rushed to Michigan from China, as they talked to surgeons at Sparrow Hospital. The parents do not speak English, so Qian said he served as a translator.  

Monday’s shootings killed three students and hospitalized four students besides Hao, including another student from China.

Funerals for the two of the slain students — Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner from suburban Detroit — were Saturday, while services for a third, Arielle Diamond Anderson, of Harper Woods are Tuesday.

Qian said Hao was in the same humanities classroom in Berkey Hall on Monday where Anderson and Verner were killed and several others were injured.

Earlier this week, the family of MSU student Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, a hospitality business major and daughter of migrant workers from Florida, also posted a GoFundMe appeal, which raised more than $420,000 by Saturday afternoon. 

Qian said in the GoFundMe post that Hao remains in intensive care and had been a breathing with assistance from a tube inserted in his lung. On Saturday, Qian posted that "John is not in intubation anymore ... and he does seem calmer now after I told him how much success we gained" from the fundraiser.

He said Hao’s parents face “significant financial burdens. Due to COVID-19, they are already in a large amount of debt, and John’s critical injuries are adding to the pressure on the family, leaving (the) parents not only to pay the debt in the future but also need to take care of John without having any income” while they are in the United States.

Qian told Bridge his friend loves adventure and the outdoors. He likes to ride his motorcycle, travel to state parks, go on road trips, “he loves all that,” Qian said. “All those things have been taken away from him.” 

Qian said the funds will go toward paying Hao’s hospital bills and to support Hao’s family.