At least two people have been killed and nine others wounded after a shooter opened fire on Brown University’s campus in Providence, Rhode Island, the United States, on Saturday afternoon.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials continue to search for the suspect, who remains at large hours after the attack.
The university reported two confirmed deaths and six people in critical condition, while students barricade themselves inside buildings using desks and tables. All the victims were confirmed to be students.
Authorities are searching for a male dressed in black and released a brief video of the suspect late Saturday night. Investigators have yet to capture images of the suspect entering the building or his face.
Brown’s campus is under lockdown, and Providence officials have urged students and residents to shelter in place and contact the police with any information.
Students received an emergency text message alerting them to a shooter near the Barus and Holley engineering building on Hope Street at around 4:20 p.m.
The university instructed students to lock doors, silence phones, stay hidden until further notice, or run, hide, or fight as a last resort.
President Donald Trump and other officials have been briefed on the shooting and are monitoring developments closely.
Rachel Friedberg, a Brown economics professor, told Ocean State Media that the mass shooting took place in her classroom. She was not present at the time but received details from her teaching assistant.
“The room has stadium seating with doors that enter at the top,” Friedberg said. “He said that the shooter came in the doors, yelled something, he couldn’t remember what he yelled and started shooting. Students started to scramble to try to get away from the shooter, trying to get lower down in the stadium seating, and people got shot.”
Brown University Provost Frank Doyle confirmed that final exams scheduled for Sunday will be canceled.
“At this time, we will not be having final exams tomorrow,” he said.
The shooting reportedly occurred during a final exam review. Officials have stated they found “no useful video” from inside the building where the gunman fired into the classroom.
Mayor Brett Smiley said that the only images of a suspect that have emerged appear in a brief video showing a figure dressed in all black walking away from the scene, with no visible face.
Providence remains under a shelter-in-place order for much of the East Side, and law enforcement presence will increase through Sunday.
The mayor clarified that church services and other events do not need to be canceled or postponed.
The FBI is collecting video evidence and tips related to the shooting, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced at a press conference Saturday night.
Brown University junior Mia Tretta, who survived a 2019 school shooting in Santa Clarita, California, described the impact of the attack to NBC News.
“No one in this country even assumes it’s going to happen to them,” she said. “Once it happens to you, you assume or are told it will never happen again. And obviously that is not the case.” She added that the Brown community is “in shambles” after the attack.
After surviving the 2019 incident, Tretta said, “I have not been the same person I was that day ever again, and I assume it won’t be any different for the students at Brown.”
Zoe Weissman, 20, a survivor of the Parkland mass shooting, has now endured a second mass shooting while attending Brown University.
She told MS NOW, “I’m really angry. I’m really angry. I’m really angry that this is happening to me all over again. And I’m just in shock.”
Providence, a city of around 200,000 people, had recorded only two homicides in 2025 prior to the Brown University shooting. In comparison, 2024 saw 11 homicides.
