After a frenzied 5 days, the manhunt for the person who police believe killed two people and wounded 9 others in a mass shooting at Brown University is over. But feelings were mixed on Friday on campus and in the surrounding Providence neighborhoods.
Some felt a sense of relief. Others questioned what had motivated the shooting.
Graduate student Yannick Etoundi visited a memorial outside the Barus and Holley building, where the shooting took place, for the first time since the tragedy. He wondered about Brown’s future.
“It’s still unnerving and still very frightening and terrifying,” Etoundi said. “But at the same time, I think it’s slowly coming to the realization that this happened and just thinking about, ‘What does our day-to-day look like after this?’”
Brown University cancelled most classes and exams after the shooting. Second semester classes aren’t scheduled to begin until Jan. 21.
Many, of course, breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the suspect was found dead on Thursday at a storage unit in New Hampshire.
Angie Felix said she has a coworker who lives close to the scene of the shooting. She lives in Lincoln and she traveled to Providence on Friday to shop with her daughter.
“I felt a little safer just to know that, okay, they found someone,” Felix said. “I mean, I hope it’s the right person.”
Abigail Donaldson, a mother of two, said she has experienced a variety of emotions this week.
“It’s made me think a lot more about the world that we’re in now and the world that my kids are growing up in,” Donaldson told Ocean State Media. “It really, honestly, makes me sad.”
Donaldson says she’s grateful that Providence schools remained open this week because it provided her kids with a sense of normalcy.
Nicole Gonzalez, a cashier at Pleasant Surprise, a gift shop on Thayer St., said it has been nerve-wracking to come to work this week. She sheltered in the basement of the store during the shooting.
Gonzalez said she feels a little better after learning the suspect is no longer at large. But there’s a sense of loss in the neighborhood.
“Usually, it’s Christmastime, like everyone’s shopping, everyone’s happy, it’s a pretty cute vibe in Providence,” Gonzalez said. “Now it’s like, it’s empty, no one’s really feeling happy. You can just feel how heavy everything is now.”
Ocean State Media’s Joe Tasca contributed to this story.
