A devastating shooting incident unfolded at Brown University on Saturday, resulting in two student fatalities and eight individuals sustaining critical injuries, with one additional person wounded. The Ivy League campus in Providence, Rhode Island, remained under strict lockdown orders as law enforcement agencies launched an extensive manhunt for the unidentified assailant.
According to official statements, the attack occurred in the Barus Holley engineering building where students were undergoing examinations. The gunman, described as a male potentially in his 30s wearing dark clothing and possibly a mask, entered the facility through unlocked exterior doors before opening fire in a classroom. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara confirmed the recovery of shell casings from the scene, though specific investigative details remain undisclosed.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley emphasized that while no ‘specific, ongoing threat’ was believed to exist, the shelter-in-place mandate would continue to facilitate the initial phase of the investigation. The directive affected both the university campus and surrounding residential areas, with streets crowded with emergency response vehicles and heightened security measures implemented throughout the city.
The coordinated investigation involves multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, alongside state and local law enforcement. Search operations faced complications from weekend holiday shoppers and numerous concert attendees in the vicinity.
Brown President Christina Paxson confirmed that all or nearly all victims were students, characterizing the event as ‘the day one hopes never happens.’ University health services reported seven of the nine wounded in critical condition as of late Saturday.
The incident has reignited national conversations about gun violence, with statistics from the Gun Violence Archive indicating 389 mass shootings in the United States this year alone, including at least six educational institution attacks. This continues a troubling pattern from 2024, which recorded over 500 such incidents nationwide.
Student testimonies revealed harrowing experiences of sheltering under desks for hours, while Brown sophomore Zoe Weissman—a Parkland shooting survivor—expressed both numbness and anger, noting she was ‘shocked but not surprised’ by the tragedy.