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‘In moments like this, we see the best of Rhode Island’: Leaders react to Brown shooting
"The firefighters, the policemen, the civil leaders, neighbors who come together, and let us celebrate that community," Sen. Jack Reed said.
New England leaders are reacting to the mass shooting at Brown University during final exams Saturday night, killing at least two and wounding nine others.
“Two are looking down on us right now from heaven,” President Donald Trump said about the Brown University shooting, per video shared by NBC. “I just want to pay my respects to everybody.”
The gunman fired more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun in a classroom in the Barus & Holley building, which houses the School of Engineering and physics department, The Associated Press reported.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on social media the deadly shooting was “horrific,” while Sen. Ed Markey called for action “to end this painful epidemic of gun violence.”
“Students should be able to learn in peace, not fear gun violence,” Warren said. “My heart goes out to the victims, their loved ones, and the entire Providence community.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, spoke about the shooting on CNN. Murphy took office shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which happened 13 years ago Sunday.
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“A community never, ever recovers from a shooting like this,” Murphy told CNN. “That community in Providence won’t recover. Those kids who are returning to campus are going to be looking over their shoulder, wondering if they are going to survive their next day in class.”
Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, said he “woke up with a heavy heart thinking about the Brown shooting and remembering” the Sandy Hook anniversary. Reed spoke on behalf of some of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation at a press conference Sunday.
“This has been a horrible, terrible moment,” Reed said. “But in moments like this, we see the best of Rhode Island. The firefighters, the policemen, the civil leaders, neighbors who come together, and let us celebrate that community.”
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Police released surveillance footage showing a person of interest dressed in black, calmly walking away from the scene. A person of interest was detained early Sunday morning and reportedly identified as Benjamin Erickson, an Army veteran from Wisconsin.
Brown University student Mia Tretta previously lived through a shooting at her high school. She was shot and injured in 2019 at Saugus High School in California. Kendall Turner, 19, was critically wounded during the shooting at Brown, her alma mater Durham Academy confirmed.
“No one in this country even assumes it’s going to happen to them,” Tretta said, per NBC News. “Once it happens to you, you assume or are told it will never happen again, and obviously that is not the case.”
Murphy appeared to blame Trump for launching “a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country.” Murphy pointed to the administration restoring gun rights to some felons and cutting bipartisan mental health and community anti-gun violence grants.
“He’s knowingly restoring gun rights to dangerous people, he’s cutting off grants that have bipartisan support,” Murphy said. Additional violence is “knowable” and “foreseeable,” Murphy said about Trump’s policies.
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