The manhunt continues in Providence, Rhode Island, for the person who opened fire Saturday, December 13, on the campus of Ivy League institution Brown University, killing two students and wounding another nine.
While a Wisconsin student was initially detained by cops as a “person of interest” in the shooting, that person has been released, and police say that the evidence has propelled the investigation into a different direction.
NewsPlop explains everything we know so far about the Brown University shooting in December 2025.
The Brown University Shooting Happened Inside a Classroom
The gunman started firing inside a classroom at approximately 4 p.m. at the Barus and Holley Engineering building, where students were taking their final exams.
An economics professor told Ocean State Media that the shooting had taken place during a review session for her course, which was being led by her teaching assistant.
“He said that the shooter came in the doors, yelled something — he couldn’t remember what he yelled — and started shooting,” Rachel Friedberg told the outlet. “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.”
Two Slain Brown University Students Identified
Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov have been identified as the Brown students killed in Saturday’s shooting.
Cook, whose age was not released, was a sophomore from Alabama who served as vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University.
On Monday, December 15, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered her condolences to Cook’s loved ones.
“There are no words,” Leavitt said in a post on social media. “Thinking of her family and friends, especially her parents. God, please bless them.”
Cook’s priest, Reverend Craig Smalley, called her a “bright light” during a livestreamed sermon, and called her “incredibly grounded and generous and faithful.” Cook began attending Brown in 2024.
Canadiens’ Martin St. Louis Reacts to Son Being Impacted by Brown Shooting
Umurzokov, a freshman, was an Uzbek American student who “had big dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon and helping people,” a GoFundMe account explained. “He was incredibly kind, funny, and smart. He continues to be my family’s biggest role model in all aspects. He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew. Our family is incredibly devastated by this loss.”
Two School Shooting Survivors Attend Brown University
This wasn’t the first shooting that Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman managed to live through, but it retraumatized them just the same.
Tretta, 21, took a bullet during the 2019 mass shooting at Saugus High School in California, when a 16-year-old boy entered the school and shot five students, killing two. The shooter later ended his own life as police closed in. And Weissman, 20, attended Westglades Middle School, next door to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. She was not shot but was in class in 2018 when a former student opened fire inside the high school, killing 14 students and three faculty members.
The school said in a statement there is no immediate threat to Brown or the surrounding community, even with the gunman still out there. All remaining in-person final exams have been cancelled.
The Brown University Shooter Wore a Mask
Little is known about the gunman, beyond that he’s a male. Police can’t say if he is a current or former student or has some connection to the university. But it does appear the shooter hid his face with a mask.
Security footage of the male suspect shows him walking from the scene wearing all black. His face is covered, likely with a mask. Some witnesses are said to have told officers the attacker might have been wearing a camouflage grey mask at the time. Authorities released brand new footage of the gunman late Monday.
Nearly 2,000 students had been relocated from the school, with local residents taking in Ivy Leaguers for the night.
‘Survivor’ Alum Eva Erickson Reveals How She Narrowly Escaped Brown University Shooter
Eva Erickson, who competed on season 48 of Survivor in spring 2025, revealed in a video shared via Instagram that she left her graduate office at Brown University around 4 p.m. on December 13, just minutes before the shooting in the building began. She sheltered herself in the school’s indoor track and basketball area instead.
“I feel very lucky to have left my office when I did. Thank you for checking in on my safety,” Erickson, who is a PhD candidate in engineering and fluid and thermal science at Brown, wrote in the caption.
Erickson added in a follow-up video that the campus felt “eerie” on the day after the shooting.
“Everybody is leaving. Everyone is trying to get the hell away from Brown to get home to their families where they can feel safe,” she said.
She also described feeling emotional as she drove past Barus & Holley, where the shooting took place.
“The door that I had exited mere minutes before the shooter would have entered was covered up. Boarded off, crime scene tape all around the building. Still a lot of police presence,” Erickson continued. “And seeing this is what really hit me for the first time, because for all of last night, for all this, I was like, ‘I’m safe.’”