Two people were killed and and at least nine others were injured by a gunman on the Brown University campus on the East Side of Providence on Saturday, according to school and local officials.
As of 10 p.m., police did not have a suspect in custody. School and city officials urged people near the Brown campus to shelter in place.
Eight people were being treated at Rhode Island Hospital, in “critical status,” according to Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. He added that an additional student was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Near the scene of the shooting on Providence’s East Side, hundreds of law enforcement personnel – including from the FBI and ATF – combed the area into Saturday night. A reporter at Rhode Island Hospital was told that the emergency room was on lockdown, as police walked in and out and security guarded the exits.
The reported shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building at 184 Hope St., according to Smiley. The building houses the university’s School of Engineering and physics department. According to university officials, final exams were scheduled to be held in that building during the afternoon and evening hours.
Tim O’Hara, the Providence Police deputy chief on the scene, said the suspect exited the building onto Hope St. The only description he could give of the suspect is “a male, dressed in black.”
Providence Police released a video of the suspect leaving the academic building and asked for help from the public in identifying them.
Rachel Friedberg, a Brown economics professor, said the mass shooting happened in a review session for the final exam of her Principles of Economics course. She said she learned what happened from a teaching assistant who led the session. Friedberg herself was not present.
“The room has stadium seating with doors that enter at the top,” Friedberg said. “He said that the shooter came in the doors, yelled something — he couldn’t remember what he yelled — and started shooting.”
“Students started to scramble to try to get away from the shooter, trying to get lower down in the stadium seating, and people got shot,” Friedberg said. “I don’t know if they’re the only ones who got shot or not.”
Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed at a press briefing later Saturday night that at least eight of the people shot were students, though she said she did not know what the students were doing in the building when they were shot.
Friedberg visited Rhode Island Hospital on Saturday night, where she said she spoke with her teaching assistant, who had traveled there to support several of their injured students.
Friedberg said she still does not know the names of the two people that university officials say were killed in the shooting.
“I don’t know if they were my students. It’s really surreal to think about,” Friedberg said. “Just horrible.”
I don’t know if they were my students. It’s really surreal to think about.
Friedberg declined to identify her teaching assistant by name, out of concern for his privacy. She is a teaching professor of economics at Brown and a faculty associate in the program for Judaic Studies. Her Principles of Economics course is the most heavily attended class at Brown, taken by half of all undergraduates, according to her online academic profile.
Brown University set up a family reunification center at the Nelson Fitness Center for those involved to meet with their loved ones.
The first indication of trouble occurred shortly after 4:20 p.m. when the university issued an alert, warning students and staff of an active shooter near the Barus & Holley Engineering building and directing them to lock doors, silence phones and shelter in place.
At one point, a Brown alert claimed a second shooting on Governor Street. The university later said that was “unfounded.”
This story has been updated with additional information from media briefings and reporting at Rhode Island Hospital and in Providence. Paul Singer and Heide Borgonovo contributed to this story.
