Witnesses describe anxious campus as news of Brown University shooting spread, police arrived

Mr Owen Fick, a junior at Brown University who had gone out to pick up ice during exam week, saw heavily armed police officers in protective gear running down the street.

Thayer Street was jammed with police cars and emergency vehicles.

“I really had no idea what was going on, but then it became really apparent,” said Mr Fick, who watched as the officers appeared to sweep a building.

He added: “There were a lot of ambulances, a lot of cop cars, fire trucks. They just had a lot of gurneys.”

He rushed to a dorm room to shelter in place.

As the university put out alerts saying there was an active shooter on campus
, students hid in classrooms and dormitories, trying to glean any information they could from text messages and social media.

Parents also tried desperately to figure out what was going on.

The shooting was first reported about 4pm (5am on Dec 14, Singapore time) at the Barus and Holley building, a seven-storey structure that houses the School of Engineering and Physics Department.

Ms Victoria Edison said she had been texting with her son Ansel Edison, a freshman, during the attack.

He told her when the shooting started, he had been at the science library next door to the engineering building, writing an essay on Immanuel Kant for his philosophy final.

Mr Edison texted that one of his friends was barricaded in the engineering building, his mother said. He then told her police started to bang on the door of the library and told the students inside to open up.

He is now with the police, Ms Edison said.

“It’s terrifying,” she said. She added that she was scouring a Facebook parents’ group for updates.

Mr Talib Reddick, president of Brown’s Undergraduate Council of Students, said he was following updates from his dorm room, monitoring text messages and videos from the scene of the shooting.

Mr Reddick described the engineering facility near where the shooting was reported as a popular study spot that was often bustling with students.

He said students were taking finals on Dec 13, so he expected that the building would have been busy.

“I’m sure students are very distraught – I am myself,” Mr Reddick said. “It’s just horrifying that it happened in Barus and Holley, knowing that a lot of students were likely in there.”

Ms Catherine Chen, a senior who was sheltering in place at her apartment about a half-mile (0.8km) from Barus and Holley, described that part of campus as a vibrant hub for students.

“That area has a lot of traffic because there’s also a library that’s very close by and it’s also on the way back from campus to some dorms,” she said.

Barus and Holley has lecture rooms, offices, laboratories and study spaces. Ms Chen said she had often seen students prop open the door to the building to study inside on weekends.

The area is also frequented by students who work at a nearby coffee shop and by others from the Brown Design Workshop, which is next door and houses equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters. NYTIMES