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A shooting that tore through Brown University’s Barus & Holley engineering building on December 13, 2025, left at least two students dead and multiple others wounded, plunging a venerable campus into chaos on the eve of finals. The suspect — described as a male wearing black — remained at large as law enforcement scrambled to secure the scene and account for terrified students.
One student, Robert James, recounted hunkering down and fearing the worst in a live interview, describing the surreal, helpless feeling of being ordered to lock doors and stay silent while violence unfolded nearby. His firsthand account underscores the trauma ordinary students now face when classrooms become crime scenes and exams turn into emergencies.
Local, state and federal authorities descended on Providence in force, with the FBI and ATF joining Providence police in a large-scale manhunt that officials warned could take time to resolve. The deliberate, methodical clearing of buildings and the imposition of shelter-in-place orders revealed the grim reality: when seconds count, investigative caution must compete with the urgent need to restore safety.
Initial confusion about the incident — including an early, erroneous report that a suspect had been detained — only amplified student fear and public frustration as officials worked to separate fact from rumor. Hospitals treated multiple victims, many reported to be students, and the attack struck during a period when exam schedules left classrooms full of young people.
This is not merely a campus problem; it is a symptom of a broader rot in our cities and institutions. Universities that lecture on safety while outsourcing real security, and public officials who preach leniency while crime spirals, have left students vulnerable and families angry. The cultural reflex to minimize or ritualize such violence instead of confronting criminality head-on must end.
Now is the moment to insist that campuses restore robust safety protocols, that law enforcement be empowered and properly resourced, and that cowardly calls to defund or hamstring police give way to policies that actually protect people. Colleges should be sanctuaries of learning, not places where political posturing trumps common-sense security measures.
Officials themselves have acknowledged the chaotic flow of information on the ground — a reminder that transparency and competence matter in a crisis. The public deserves clear answers about how an active shooter could strike a busy academic building, and who dropped the ball before tragedy struck.
Prayers are owed to the victims and gratitude to the first responders who put themselves at risk to save lives. Beyond thoughts and prayers, Americans must demand accountability and practical reforms so that students can study without fearing for their lives and so that justice reaches whoever committed this atrocity.
