Brown University students feeling ‘raw’ and ‘nervous’ in return to campus after mass shooting
By Leigh Waldman, Maria Sole Campinoti, and Eric Levenson, CNN
Providence, Rhode Island (CNN) — Just over six years ago, Mia Tretta was shot in the stomach by a student at her high school in Santa Clarita, California.
She survived, but two others were killed that day. After recovering, she returned to the campus to finish her high school career because “being with the people that experienced this with me was the best option,” Tretta told CNN on Monday.
Tretta has now chosen that path again, returning this week to Brown University, the site of a mass shooting last month.
“I mean, I’ve already done this,” Tretta told CNN before the spring semester begins Wednesday. “Six years ago, I had to walk back into a campus that was … missing two students. And now I’m here walking back, and campus is missing two people.”
Tretta was one of a number of Brown students who spoke to CNN to mark the restart of classes, amid ongoing questions about security on campus and how to apportion blame for the shooting that left the campus community anxious and rattled.
“It’s so unfair that everyone on this campus has to come back and they’re scared, and they’re nervous,” Tretta said. “They don’t know what to expect, and I don’t either.”
It’s been a month since a 48-year-old former student opened fire inside a campus engineering building on December 13, killing students Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others.
The suspected shooter, Claudio Neves Valente, was able to flee the state and two days later fatally shot Nuno Loureiro, an MIT professor and the suspect’s former classmate, according to authorities. Neves Valente was found dead by suicide in a New Hampshire storage unit on December 18.
The suspect admitted to the attacks in a series of short videos authorities recovered from an electronic device, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Valente did not offer a motive – or apologies – for the attacks in the videos.
Brown has faced tough questions about its security policies – including a lack of surveillance footage of the suspect – in the wake of the attack. The Department of Education announced a probe into whether the Ivy League school violated federal law around safety standards, and the school has instituted enhanced security measures and announced plans for a review of the response to the shooting.
The FBI, too, has faced criticism for failing to catch the suspect in time to prevent further violence. In addition, early in the investigation, the bureau announced it had detained a person of interest in the shooting – only to later absolve the man of wrongdoing. FBI Director Kash Patel praised the FBI, ATF, Justice Department and US attorneys who “did incredible work supporting local authorities in the investigation” and “led the way in critical breakthroughs to identify the suspect.”
Meanwhile, Brown’s students have returned from winter break with mixed emotions. Outside the site of the shooting, dozens of flower bouquets rest on the sidewalk mingled with a sign saying “PVD ❤️ Brown.”
Even Providence locals, like Mayor Brett Smiley, are happy to see the students return.
“For those of us who live here, who are not college students, we generally look forward to the day when the kids all leave and we get our city back and it’s a little quieter,” Smiley told CNN.
“This year, obviously, it is very different. And so I think, like most of my neighbors, we’re very excited that they’re coming back. We’re very excited that they’ll be returning here and we hope that they feel warmly welcomed by their neighbors here.”
Brown makes security changes
Brown has worked to overhaul its security protocols and leadership team over the past month.
The university placed its vice president for public safety and emergency management on leave after the shooting. Hugh T. Clements, former chief of police of the Providence Police Department, took over as interim and will oversee an after-action review, Brown President Christina Paxson said.
“A thorough After-Action Review is an essential part of any recovery and response following a mass casualty event like the one that has devastated our campus,” she added.
In a letter to the community, Clements acknowledged the “critical questions” about the university’s security systems.
He laid out several changes to the security protocols, including increased security staffing, requiring card access for buildings, expansion of the blue light emergency phones with cameras across campus, and the installation of more security cameras, including at the Barus & Holley building where the shooting took place.
“These efforts are part of a broad and multi-pronged approach to campus safety that integrates prevention, response and communication across the University,” Clements wrote.
The university declined to provide someone to speak to CNN in further detail.
On campus this weekend, a CNN crew observed a work crew installing one such blue light emergency phone, which provides a direct line to emergency services. The School of Engineering and Department of Physics complex, which includes the Barus & Holley building, remains closed, while the rest of the campus is open for students.
Smiley praised the initial response to the shooting as “very strong.” A timeline of events from the city notes that the first 911 call of shots fired came at 4:05 p.m. Police and fire units were dispatched about 1 minute, 22 seconds later, and the first responders arrived on scene at 4:10 p.m.
“Those actions almost certainly prevented either worse injuries or maybe even another loss,” he said.
He said the city is also conducting a review of its response to the shooting.
“My sense of the community outside of the campus is they’re not in a place right now where they need to see a police officer on every corner, but they do want to know that we’re asking the hard questions: What did we get right? What did we get wrong? Are there other sort of infrastructure or security enhancements that should be made to these other public spaces where they may go, their kids may go, on a regular basis?” Smiley said.
Students debate blame and changes
Paxson, Brown’s president, announced “a campus-wide healing and recovery effort” called Brown Ever True in a message to the university’s community on January 5.
“There is no playbook for what we have been through as a community,” Paxson wrote. “There is no single source of truth for how any of us should heal. No ‘one path’ to begin again, or ‘right way’ to find peace, solace and joy. But we are Brown — the enduring strength of our caring and supportive community has long been a hallmark of who we are. Ever true.”
Students on campus spoke to CNN about their mixed feelings on returning to campus and whether they felt safe at Brown.
Mason Blondeau, a transfer student studying business economics, said the school’s security changes “definitely makes me feel a lot better.” He did not blame the school for the shooting and described it as a “freak accident.”
“I feel like lightning never strikes twice in the same place,” he said. “It was more so in my mind a reflection of a weird societal place than like the school’s doing.”
Liam Melvin, a physics student, was cautiously optimistic of Brown’s moves.
“I feel raw, definitely. I’d like to see how Brown handles the situation, especially considering that they have a lot of pressure on them now,” he said. “I’m optimistic though. I believe in my school and I believe in the people here. I just hope that we can all feel safe here.”
Emily Hamp, a senior studying applied math biology, left campus right after the shooting, so returning will be “very difficult” and “very challenging.”
“At the same time, I am looking forward to being back with the community and sort of healing together, and I think that just the way the Providence community as a whole has come together has just been amazing to see,” she said.
Mike Hamp, her father, said he didn’t have any hesitation with her returning to Brown’s campus. He said the after-action review was necessary but cautioned people to be “reasonable” in assigning blame.
“In my opinion, there’s very little an institution can do to prevent something like this if an individual is determined to do what that guy did,” he said. “I would be thoughtful about condemning individuals in the administration.”
Tretta, the high school shooting victim, said her experience informed her decision to become a gun violence prevention advocate. She said she was looking forward to engaging the Brown community in advocating for stricter background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
“A camera in a building or a swipe access is not enough when anyone can just go in and buy a gun like this,” she said, snapping.
Tretta said there was one thing she’d tell others.
“There’s nothing I can really tell my classmates besides, ‘We have to figure it out together, and we have to lean on each other as a community.’”
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