At least 20 victims
Shots at US university: perpetrator on the run
Updated 12/14/2025 – 1:14 amReading time: 2 minutes
Shots again at a US university: Police in Providence are looking for a shooter.
There were shots fired at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday afternoon (local time). Students and residents were warned of a shooter. In an initial message, the university called for people to lock doors, silence cell phones and hide. Anyone who can safely escape should do so – otherwise resistance could be a last resort.
Police confirmed that there were several injured. Two people were killed and, according to official information, eight others were injured. The severity of the injuries is unclear. The university belongs to the so-called “Ivy League”, the elite universities in the northeast of the USA.
Eyewitnesses told the newspaper how the incident began: 28-year-old Katie Sun was studying in the lobby of the Engineering Research Center when she heard gunshots around 4:10 p.m. She left the building, leaving all her belongings behind, and ran to her dorm to safety. “It was quite frightening, to be honest. The shots seemed to be coming from the direction of the classrooms,” she said.
US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I have been informed of the shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. The suspect is in custody. God bless the victims and the families of the victims!” However, other reports from local and national media contradict this, according to which the perpetrator is still at large and further shots were fired. The university also initially announced that the police had arrested a suspect. Shortly afterwards, however, she stated that the search for the suspect or suspects was still ongoing.
Police confirmed they briefly took a suspect into custody, but it quickly became clear that person had nothing to do with the shooting. Officials say one person was “suspected to have been involved” but was “later determined to be uninvolved.”
There have been more than 70 school shootings in the United States so far this year, according to a CNN analysis based on reports from the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.
