One of the five students critically injured during a mass shooting at Michigan State University on Monday night has been identified.

Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, 20, a hospitality business major at MSU, was named in a GoFundMe page created by her sister in an appeal for help with hospital bills. 

Huapilla-Perez was injured during a shooting in which Anthony McRae, 43, opened fire at the university's social sciences building, killing two students, before he traveled to the student union on foot and killed a third person.

Her sister said Huapilla-Perez will require 'months of care and subsequent rehabilitation' and that the situation was made more dire by the fact she did not have health insurance, Detroit News reported.  The victim's parents are farm workers from Florida. 

News of her injuries comes amid controversy relating to a text message disseminated to students by the university during the attack, which read: 'run, hide, fight'. 

Huapilla-Perez, known as Lupe, is one of five identified as being critically injured after the attack. A spokesman for Sparrow Hospital, John Foren, said late on Tuesday that all five remain critically injured.

Earlier in the day the three students killed were identified as Brian Fraser, a sophomore from Grosse Pointe, Alexandria Verner, a junior from Clawson and Arielle Anderson, a sophomore from Harper Woods.

One was a fraternity chapter president. Another was a science student with fond memories of her days as a high-school athlete. And a third was the niece of a reality TV star and aspired to be a pediatrician.

In her GoFundMe post, which had raised more than $150,000 as of Tuesday night, Huapilla-Perez's sister said that their family held all the victims in their hearts.

'Lupe was one of the victims injured in the recent attack at Michigan State University. While we are happy that Lupe remains with us, we are devastated by the violence that has impacted so many. This unfortunately includes our family,' she wrote.

Her sister explained that the family is from south Florida and traveled to Michigan to accompany Huapilla-Perez in hospital. 

'She is a leader in the community and beyond. Lupe is incredibly hard-working, focused, and ambitious, choosing a career path that's never been explored in our family,' she wrote.

She also suggested that the recovery process would not be straightforward and could take some months. That, she said, would have financial implications.

'Being away from home, our family will be unable to work while monthly bills will continue to mount,' she said.

MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant declined to confirm to Detroit News as to whether Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez was officially among those injured.

'At this time we are not confirming the identities of any of our students who are in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital as a result of the attack,' she said.

Alerts sent out to students urged them to 'run, hide, fight' after the violence erupted and video showed them fleeing as police swarmed onto the scene. 

'Run means evacuate away from danger if you can do so safely, Hide means to secure-in-place, and Fight means protect yourself if no other option,' continued the message from the university, which was shared widely on social media.

The unpalatable message caused outrage. 'We shouldn't have to live like this,' read one tweet, while others labeled it as 'dystopian'.

However, the controversial instruction, which appears ask students to fight off armed attackers, is not exclusive to Michigan State. The strategy follows best practices developed by the Department of Homeland Security.

It suggests that when a shooter is nearby people should fight only as a last resort and only if confronted by a shooter.

At various colleges and elementary schools the protocol goes by several different names, but the objective is always to escape the threat, hide or barricade, and if an assailant finds you, to take action.

Advocates say the protocol encourages people to be proactive and go beyond the traditional lockdown approach, but critics say it's misguided to teach students to fight back.

Some school safety experts say it needlessly puts students in danger and push for stronger lockdown policies and better training for school safety officials.

Joseph Erardi, who was superintendent in Newtown, Connecticut, for four years after a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook, says the discussion around how students should respond in a mass shooting situation is always uncomfortable.

'What we've learned over time is to provide staff and students with as many options as possible in the moment,' he said in 2019, after a cluster of school and college shootings. 'You never want to take that common sense element out.'

In the last few years, several companies have developed panic buttons and started using livestreaming cameras on classroom tablets or computers so police officers can see inside in real-time if a gunman enters a school.

Across the country, 911 call centers have slowly been moving to enable text-to-911 capabilities and the ability to silently provide information to police.

Alexandria 'Alex' Verner, a 2020 graduate of Clawson High School, was killed in the shooting, according to an email sent by CPS school officials. She was a biology and anthropology junior at MSU and set to graduate in 2024. 

Brian Fraser, 20, who graduated from Grosse Pointe South and was studying business at MSU, was identified as the second victim of the massacre, the university's police department confirmed. 

Flavor of Love reality TV star Deelishis revealed her niece, Arielle Diamond Anderson, 19, was the third victim.

The three were killed and five others were injured when McRae began shooting at 8.18pm on Monday before turning the gun on himself.

Verner was first victim to be identified in a statement from her hometown school district, which described her as 'a tremendous student, athlete, [and] leader' who 'exemplified kindness.'

Verner's Twitter bio says, 'Can't stop dreaming,' and features photos and videos from Clawson basketball and volleyball games. 

'If you knew [Alex], you loved her and we will forever remember the lasting impact she has had on all of us,' the statement read.

Alex was studying integrated biology and anthropology at MSU, and was set to graduate in 2024, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The second victim was identified by the  Michigan State University Department of Police and Public Safety Police as Brian Fraser, a sophomore from Grosse Point.

Fraser was president of Michigan State's chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, which said in a statement Tuesday that its members were 'heartbroken.'

'Brian was our leader, and we loved him,' the fraternity said. '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.'

According to Fraser's LinkedIn page, he was studying business, and had previously worked as the head lifeguard at a Detroit country club. 

Jon Dean, superintendent of the Grosse Pointe schools, said the third victim had also graduated from the district.

'I can't even process what I just wrote,' Dean said in an open letter. 'It is with a great deal of sadness that I bring this news to you and my thoughts go out to the many families that are suffering from another senseless act of violence.'

Flavor of Love star Deelishis who had posted to social media on Monday night that niece was missing from the college campus has since pinned a comment from another family member who wrote 'my sweet beautiful niece... RIP baby girl.' 

Like Fraser, Anderson was also a graduate of the Grosse Pointe Public School system. Her family told WXYZ that she loved children and wanted to be a pediatrician one day.

The gunman has no known ties to the school and it remains unclear what his motive for the shooting is, or what kind of weapon he used.

His father Michael, 66, described him today as a 'mama's boy' who turned 'evil and mean' after his mother Linda died suddenly three years ago. The pair lived together in McRae's family home, which is around five miles from the MSU campus.

McRae was found with a note in his pocket indicating a threat to two public schools in Ewing, New Jersey, which were closed for the day 'out of an abundance of caution'.

McRae terrorized the campus for nearly four hours, running through the streets, brandishing a gun, and shooting bullets - but police have not yet been able to establish a motive.

Surveillance footage showed him, wearing a jean-jacket, ball cap and red sneakers, wandering nonchalantly along a street having just shot up two separate locations on campus.

Cops descended on the scene in response to a torrent of urgent 911 calls but the killer had already left the premises, heading west out of the building and skulking along campus roads as he hunted for his next victims.

Less than 15 minutes later, gunshots were reported at the MSU Union building, a popular spot for students to eat, drink and study just a 10-minute walk from Berkey Hall.

The Michigan State shooting comes on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Valentine's Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed.

It also follows the shooting on February 14, 2008 at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, in which a gunman killed five students and injured 17 more people, before fatally shooting himself.