Brown University, reeling from shooting, sends students home

Brown University, mourning two students killed during a shooting rampage Saturday, sent students home and called off final exams, classes and assignments for the fall semester.

A blanket of snow covered the campus and downtown Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday morning as the Ivy League school reeled from its first encounter with mass violence. Students recounted barricading themselves in their homes, waiting out the shelter-in-place orders by huddling together in the dark for hours as a manhunt ensued for the suspect who opened fire as the undergrads were preparing for exams.

The shooting interrupted the second day of finals on Brown’s campus, shattering the calm in a study session in the Barus & Holley engineering building. The 11,000-student institution alerted an active-shooter situation on campus at about 4:20 p.m. New York time and ordered the campus community to lock down.

“There’s going to be many days, months, or I’m not sure how long, of both healing, but also moments to advocate for what might need to change,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in answer to a reporter’s question about at least two students who survived mass shootings at their high schools and now attend Brown. “I won’t be shy about sharing what I think needs to be done to make my community safer, but I’m not doing that today.”

Two students were killed and nine were injured, including one who remains in critical but stable condition, officials said. One was discharged and the other survivors are in stable condition. They declined to identify the victims until all the families had been notified.

A person of interest who was detained early Sunday was identified as Benjamin Erickson, 24, according to a person familiar with the arrest. He has not been charged and police have declined to identify him publicly. The person of interest was arrested at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles from Providence, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media.

Gunnar S., a freshman from Virginia who declined to give his last name, had attended two earlier study sessions for an upcoming final exam, but had decided to skip a third one on Saturday where the shooting occurred.

Most of the students in the class were freshmen, he said, and friends were sending text messages to check on their colleagues’ well-being. Some students didn’t respond for hours because they had left their phones as they fled for safety, he said.

For his part, Gunnar said he hid under his bed with his roommate in the dark until 3 a.m. He says he wants to go home as soon as possible and doesn’t feel safe being on campus.

Benjamin, a Brown junior who also declined to give his last name, was packing up his car amid the snowfall on Sunday to head to his grandparents’ home nearby before making his way to Louisville, Kentucky. His house is close to the engineering school where the shooting occurred, and he said he and his housemates barricaded themselves in one of their rooms. He stayed there until midnight.

Police cars blocked off streets near the location of the shooting and caution tape encircled the building, with some fluttering in the winter wind.

But there were also signs of normalcy: Three students were having a snowball fight on the quad, while others were building a snowman on the university’s main green.

The shelter-in-place order for the campus was lifted on Sunday.

“We continue to be in mourning as a community about the tragic loss of life,” Brown University President Christina Paxson said in a statement Sunday. “I am deeply moved by all the students who opened their homes and their arms to welcome friends into their dorms and other residences while we transported others to local hotels.”

Brown Provost Francis J. Doyle III said in a separate statement Sunday afternoon that all remaining in-person exams for the fall semester will be cancelled, with the exception of tests for the medical school and the MBA program. Students may elect to accept a final grade based on their work submitted before Saturday or change their grade option to “satisfactory/no credit.” Students can still submit previously assigned final papers, projects or take-home exam for either option.

Doyle also told students in an earlier statement Sunday that they can leave campus if they are able, but essential staff must remain.

“In the immediate aftermath of these devastating events, we recognize that learning and assessment are significantly hindered in the short term and that many students and others will wish to depart campus,” Doyle wrote. “Students are free to leave if they are able. Students who remain will have access to on-campus services and support.”

Brown’s campus will remain open until Dec. 22 and three of the dining halls will operate on a normal schedule, Doyle wrote later Sunday.

Beyond the campus, parents, relatives and friends grappled with the aftermath. Jim Esposito, the president of Citadel Securities and a Brown trustee, wrote in a LinkedIn post that his son was “meant to be in the very Economics classroom where the shooting occurred, but at the last moment, he chose to study on his own.” He added, “That reality cuts deeply.”

NBC reported earlier that the person of interest had a unique characteristic to his firearm and that firearm was found when he was taken into custody. Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez Jr. did not confirm if a weapon was found in a press conference Sunday afternoon.

Earlier, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee told Bloomberg News there was an “all-out search” involving every level of government, adding he had spoken to President Donald Trump and the FBI’s Patel. He asked residents to reach out to local police if they have information about the shooter.

“I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately, two are no longer with us at Brown University, nine injured, and two are looking down on us right now from heaven,” Trump said at a holiday reception at the White House Sunday. “To the nine injured: Get well fast; and to the families of those two that are no longer with us: I pay my deepest regards and respects from the United States of America.”

The external doors to the building where the shooting happened were unlocked at the time of the shooting.

Rhode Island has one of the lowest rates of death by firearms in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last deadly mass shooting in Rhode Island was in 2013, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit information aggregator.

Before Saturday, there had only been two homicides in Providence this year, Smiley said in an interview.

“I don’t know of a time something like this has ever happened in Providence,” he said. The city has held training recently on active shooter situations, including a joint exercise between Brown and Providence police about six months ago to prepare for proper coordination.

“When you live in a town like this, you don’t think this is going to happen even as you prepare for it,” Smiley said.

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(With assistance from Brooke Sutherland and Myles Miller.)