Two Survivors of the Brown University Shooting Previously Escaped Other School Gun Violence Incidents

On 13 December 2025, a mass shooting occurred at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, during final examinations, resulting in two fatalities and nine injuries as a gunman opened fire in the Barus & Holley engineering building and subsequently fled the scene.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers, including FBI and ATF agents, were deployed in a city-wide search for the suspect, and parts of the campus were placed under lockdown as authorities pursued leads and reviewed surveillance footage. The incident has intensified national concern over gun violence on educational campuses.

Among the students affected by this incident are at least two individuals who had previously survived separate episodes of school shootings, underscoring the recurrent nature of gun violence in the United States and the psychological toll on survivors.

One of these students, identified as Zoe Weissman, a 20-year-old sophomore at Brown University, had previously survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, an event that resulted in 17 deaths and numerous injuries.

During the Brown shooting, Weissman sheltered in her dorm room as law enforcement responded, later describing how the experience triggered memories of her survival of the earlier attack and expressing profound anger and frustration at enduring a second such crisis.

Another survivor affected by the Brown University shooting, identified as Mia Tretta, was shot in the abdomen during the 2019 Saugus High School shooting in California, in which two students were killed, including one of her close friends.

That earlier incident left Tretta with lasting physical injuries and shaped her subsequent advocacy against gun violence. Being involved in a second school shooting incident at Brown has reignited trauma and drawn attention to the cumulative psychological effects on individuals repeatedly exposed to mass gun violence.

These overlapping experiences of repeated exposure to gun violence have sparked renewed dialogue on the prevalence of school shootings in the United States, the long-term mental health implications for survivors, and the pressing need for comprehensive measures to prevent future incidents.

Advocacy from survivors and campus communities has highlighted the urgency of legislative and policy interventions to address access to firearms, threat assessment on school and university grounds, and resources for trauma recovery for affected individuals.

Source: The Guardian; Reuters; The New York Post