Brown University student from Pittsburgh area recalls "frantic" moments during campus shooting
A Brown University student from the Pittsburgh area recalled the "frantic" moments after a shooter opened fire at the university in Providence, Rhode Island.
Two Brown University students were shot and killed and nine others were wounded in the mass shooting on Dec. 13. The gunman remains at large.
Matthew Purcell, a junior on the men's swim team who is double-majoring in applied math-economics and computer science, said he was walking out of his suite to study at the Sciences Library when the shooting occurred at the nearby engineering building.
"I was not in the right place at the right time, but I wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Purcell, an Avonworth High School graduate.
He said he got texts in a group chat from the men's swim team, including a screenshot of a post on social media warning of an active shooter.
"I was hesitant to believe it because it didn't have very much information. It was just sort of a frantic, you know, reports of a shooter," Purcell said.
However, Purcell decided to go back inside, and within 10 minutes, he received the first alert from the university. He also heard from teammates who saw someone who was shot and had collapsed on the ground.
"At that point, we were like, OK, this is real," Purcell said.
He and his roommates locked the doors and stayed inside one of the bedrooms for hours, about a quarter mile away from the scene at the engineering building.
"The biggest concern was just trying to figure out where my teammates were, where my friends were, and make sure that they're all safe," Purcell said.
It wasn't until later that night that he learned the shooting had happened during a review session for an introduction to economics course that about five teammates were taking, including one of his roommates. Thankfully, they didn't attend the review, but he does have friends who know people who were injured or killed.
"Made it really hit a lot closer to home," Purcell said.
He added that he could have been in that lecture hall where tragedy struck over the weekend.
"Three of my four classes this semester were in the room that the shooting happened," Purcell said.
Now, he's back home in the North Hills and still processing what took place. He knows things won't be the same when he returns.
"It'll be a big adjustment, but I think that we have such a close group of people up there that I think we'll be able to get through it," Purcell said.