Student’s Fear Resurfaces After Second Campus Shooting Experience

A Brown University graduate student, who has now lived through two campus shootings, is experiencing a haunting sense of déjà vu following Sunday night’s incident at the prestigious Ivy League institution. The biotech master’s student, who requested anonymity, was at her off-campus home in Fox Point when gunfire erupted at Brown, immediately triggering memories of her first traumatic experience during the 2023 University of North Carolina shooting. During that incident, she spent eight terrifying hours locked in a lab while a professor was killed in a nearby building. “Everyone was feeding each other misinformation because everyone’s scared,” she recalled of both experiences, highlighting how fear and confusion quickly spread through campus communities during active shooter situations. Though she acknowledged significant differences between the two events—noting the Brown incident involved multiple victims, making it a “mass casualty” event—the emotional impact was “equally as scary,” leaving students scrambling for accurate information and safety.

The student’s account reveals the profound psychological toll of experiencing multiple campus shootings, a sadly increasing reality for some American students. What particularly disturbed her about the Brown University incident was the initial relief felt when authorities announced they had detained a suspect, only to have that sense of security shattered when the person of interest was released less than 24 hours later. This sudden reversal created a wave of panic across campus, with many students, including most of her friends, choosing to flee. “Most of my friends have already left. My parents called saying they were driving up from Georgia to get me,” she told Fox News Digital, illustrating how quickly the campus community disintegrated as fear took hold. The release of the detained individual left students feeling vulnerable and unprotected in an environment that should be safe for learning and growth.

Despite her frightening experience, the student was careful to praise Brown University as an “amazing institution” with extensive security measures, including comprehensive camera coverage. Her frustration instead centers on the law enforcement process that allowed the initially detained suspect to be released so quickly without a replacement arrest. “I’m more upset about finding someone and then releasing them a day later,” she explained, articulating how this procedural decision had profound psychological impacts on the student body. “It just messes with a lot of students, especially the ones who are still here.” This sentiment reflects the complex challenges facing campus communities in the aftermath of violent incidents—not just the immediate safety concerns, but also the ongoing sense of security that can be shattered when procedures seem to fail those they’re meant to protect.

The parallels between the UNC and Brown University shootings, as experienced by this student, highlight a disturbing commonality in campus shooting scenarios: the fog of misinformation that envelops affected communities during and after such traumatic events. “No one knew what was real,” she explained, describing how in both incidents, terrified students struggled to discern facts from rumors as information spread chaotically through text messages, social media, and word of mouth. This communication challenge compounds the fear already present during active shooter situations, as students must make potentially life-or-death decisions without reliable information. The psychological impact of this uncertainty—having to question every piece of information while also fearing for one’s safety—adds another layer of trauma to an already devastating experience.

One silver lining the student observed in both campus tragedies was the way student communities banded together in the aftermath. “It’s nice to see the community band together,” she reflected, suggesting that even amid chaos and fear, human connection and mutual support emerged as critical coping mechanisms. This resilience speaks to the strength of campus communities when faced with unimaginable circumstances, as students reach out to check on one another, share resources, and provide emotional support. However, this community response cannot fully mitigate the profound impact of such events, particularly when questions about safety remain unanswered. With the shooter still at large after authorities released their initial person of interest, many students felt they had no choice but to leave campus entirely, fragmenting the very community that might otherwise provide collective healing.

The student’s experience encapsulates the new reality facing American college students, who increasingly must consider the possibility of campus violence as part of their educational journey. Her decision to pursue graduate studies after already experiencing one campus shooting, only to face another, raises profound questions about the normalization of such violence in academic settings. The aftermath of the Brown shooting—with students hastily packing belongings and fleeing campus—starkly illustrates how these events disrupt not just the sense of safety but the fundamental educational mission of universities. “People don’t feel safe right now,” she concluded simply, capturing the sentiment that has driven many of her peers away from campus. As authorities continue their manhunt for the Brown University shooter, this graduate student’s dual perspective on campus violence offers a sobering window into the lived experience of those caught in the crosshairs of America’s ongoing struggle with gun violence in educational settings.