Brown University students recall barricading on campus during shooting, say they feel unsafe with suspect still at large
Three days after two Brown University students were shot and killed and nine others were wounded in a mass shooting, the gunman remains at large — and students say the Ivy League college campus they had considered a safe place no longer feels the same.
Talia Levine, a senior at Brown University studying international and public affairs, told CBS News on Monday that she was on the 11th floor of the Sciences Library with her friends when the shooting occurred at the nearby engineering building.
"This has been my home for the past eight years, and I think it is so deeply concerning to feel unsafe here, probably for the first time in my life," the Providence, Rhode Island, local said. "Overall, the sentiment among students has just been deep-rooted distress and fear that this could happen in a place we consider so safe and our home."
Levine recalled barricading for two hours on Saturday before a SWAT team came and cleared the floor. The students were then transferred to the basement, where they waited for another two hours, she said.
"We were in a state where Brown felt incredibly safe, and that bubble of safeness was completely popped when we were violated by a shooter entering our campus," Levine said. "I think it will take time and effort to be able to rebuild any sense of normalcy among students."
Another student, sophomore Aurna Mukherjee, said she had originally planned to go to an exam review session that was being held where the shooting occurred, but decided to study in her dorm instead.
"Getting the text from Brown saying there's an active shooter, if you see them run, hide, felt dystopian to me," Mukherjee told CBS News, saying she went to hide in her friend's room and barricaded herself there because there was an issue with her door. "I never imagined being in a position where I would be having to hide from an active shooter on campus."
With final exams canceled, the majority of students had left campus by Monday. But those who remained were on alert, given that the shooter had not been caught.
"I think everyone is really scared right now. And, and I think that there is a lot of fear," Eno Thomson-Tribe, a friend of one of the slain students, 18-year-old freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, told CBS News. "To know that this person is still on the loose ... is very scary."
Thomson-Tribe described Umurzokov, whose family migrated from Uzbekistan when he was young, as "magnetic," caring and supportive of his friends.
The other student who was killed, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama named Ella Cook, was remembered by Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth as a "devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama. A bright future was ended much too soon."
Police on Monday released several videos of a person of interest, but a suspect has not been identified. Authorities say they do not believe there is any immediate threat to Brown or the local community.
Despite increased police presence, Mukherjee said it will take some time for students to feel safe again.
"I am struggling to envision how we would go back to campus and go get a matcha or explore restaurants on Thayer Street the way we did before. I am sure at some point we'll get closer to that," Mukherjee said.