RI - Mass Shooting at Brown University - Providence 13 Dec 2025

[Herat]

It almost sounds like he was a hired shooter.

No apparent ties to Brown University, the Economics class, the city, the state.

Was the Professor targeted specifically? How would he have known about this Saturday review session? - It's not like it's a regular schedule you could expect from a college course.

 

[katydid23]

I think of that being close. If someone lives in the area, they would likely just go home. If they don't then I would imagine they want to get far away as possible so only going that far is still close in my mind. I would want to put as much distance between myself and the location as I could. So, to me it is close if you aren't from the area, why stay there and if you are, why not go home where you might feel safe.

What if his home is actually right there by the University? Maybe he didnt want to go home and be seen by friends or neighbors at that moment?

 

[whitelilac]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> ... Might this guy have been rejected admission to Brown which he had his heart set on? Might that professor have been on the admissions committee?

 

[Herat]

There is, but unfortunately you can't ascribe logic to actions like this. It's not terribly uncommon for school shooters to target one or two primary targets, but performing the action in public.


I didn't think antisemitism at first (I thought finals week + engineering building = a student snapped), but as soon as I heard the professors name I thought "oh no" and looked her up. I really, truly hope that this is merely coincidence, but given that it was the day before the first night of Hanukkah, the rising incidents of antisemitism, and the treatment of those with real or perceived ties to Israel in academia (the UofR 'wanted' posters, as one horrific example).. I would assume LE is looking into this as a motive.

International students being a target is an interesting thought as well - they represent 14% of the undergrad population, and almost 50% of the graduate population. There's a few colleges with higher percentages, but it's definitely a scary time for them as well.

Yes, that terrible thought about the Professor occurred to me, too. But this seems so obscure to have picked out an Economics professor in Providence, RI.

This was a first-year level Economics class, so not that many international students in the group of 60 there that evening. The TA might very well have been foreign.

 

[LAborn]

Does anyone else think he's limping? To me, he looks like his right leg is giving him problems.

JMVHO.

He looks knock kneed to me, sometimes extra weight can make a person's knees bend inward toward each other.

 

[whitelilac]

Thinking further. When my daughter applied to Brown for her PhD, she was in communication with a couple of professors in her field and potential thesis advisors. If this guy was also applying for a graduate degree and even had interviews meeting with professors who would determine his acceptance or not, he might have targeted that particular professor if she was involved in his denial. He's in his 20s, so presumably not a potential freshman.
Just a thought.

 

[99cats]

Yes, that terrible thought about the Professor occurred to me, too. But this seems so obscure to have picked out an Economics professor in Providence, RI.

This was a first-year level Economics class, so not that many international students in the group of 60 there that evening. The TA might very well have been foreign.

Great point about the first-year class. Brown has a lot of international students, but obviously with all of the political barriers around international admissions, there would likely be much fewer this year.

I briefly looked at Professor Friedberg's published work, and she heavily concentrates on the economic effects of immigration on countries. She does seem to be a fairly prominent expert on the subject, and has a number of academic articles published.

 

[Dotta]

He looks knock kneed to me, sometimes extra weight can make a person's knees bend inward toward each other.

Exactly
This was my first thought as I wrote earlier.
And excessive weight does not help in this condition.

JMO

 

[knla]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> ... Might this guy have been rejected admission to Brown which he had his heart set on? Might that professor have been on the admissions committee?

Brown Acceptance Rate at 5.65% for Class of 2029

Brown's Class of 2029 Early Decision results: 906 admitted from 5,048 applicants (17.9%), up from 2028's 14.4%, the highest since class of 2023..

www.crimsoneducation.org

It's really hard to get into Brown. Most people who apply are rejected.

 

[LAborn]

How would a non-student know about a study session happening run by a TA? I can't see how that's possible as communication between professor and students admitted in a class is a closed digital network. Which makes me think it was a random selection, but I guess time will tell.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

That could explain his awkward gait. IMO

Gait Abnormalities

Abnormal gait (walking disorder) types include: hemiplegic, diplegic, neuropathic, myopathic, Parkinsonian, choreiform, ataxic, and sensory.

med.stanford.edu

Gait Abnormalities​

There are eight basic pathological gaits that can be attributed to neurological conditions: hemiplegic, spastic diplegic, neuropathic, myopathic, Parkinsonian, choreiform, ataxic (cerebellar) and sensory. Observation of these gait are an important aspect of diagnosis that may provide information about several musculoskeletal and neurological conditions...

 

[Zinn]

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According to the TA, the session was scheduled to end at 4:00pm and he ended the session a bit after 4:00pm. He said he and those inside the class heard gunshots and screaming in the hallway as he was wrapping up the session and before the gunman opened a door and entered the classroom with stadium style seating. So if a target or targets were inside the classroom, that might suggest the gunman had been waiting for someone to exit after the review session ended since it ran past the expected end time. But beginning shooting in the hallway doesn’t fit well with the strategy of waiting to ambush one or more people inside the classroom. All of these factors together make me wonder if the target was broader, like occupants in the building or on the campus in general.

 

[katydid23]

According to the TA, the session was scheduled to end at 4:00pm and he ended the session a bit after 4:00pm. He said he and those inside the class heard gunshots and screaming in the hallway as he was wrapping up the session and before the gunman opened a door and entered the classroom with stadium style seating. So if a target or targets were inside the classroom, that might suggest the gunman had been waiting for someone to exit after the review session ended since it ran past the expected end time. But beginning shooting in the hallway doesn’t fit well with the strategy of waiting to ambush one or more people inside the classroom. All of these factors together make me wonder if the target was broader, like occupants in the building or on the campus in general.

Yes. I agree. If he was targeting the professor or a specific student, why start shooting in the hallway giving them a chance to flee?

<modsnip: Referenced/quoted post info was removed>

 

[Herat]

Yes, that terrible thought about the Professor occurred to me, too. But this seems so obscure to have picked out an Economics professor in Providence, RI.

This was a first-year level Economics class, so not that many international students in the group of 60 there that evening. The TA might very well have been foreign.

The teaching assistant for the Economics class review session is 21 year old Joseph Oduro, from New Jersey.

He gives a gripping account of the shooting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/12/14/shooting-brown-university-witness/

 

[justtrish]

According to the TA, the session was scheduled to end at 4:00pm and he ended the session a bit after 4:00pm. He said he and those inside the class heard gunshots and screaming in the hallway as he was wrapping up the session and before the gunman opened a door and entered the classroom with stadium style seating. So if a target or targets were inside the classroom, that might suggest the gunman had been waiting for someone to exit after the review session ended since it ran past the expected end time. But beginning shooting in the hallway doesn’t fit well with the strategy of waiting to ambush one or more people inside the classroom. All of these factors together make me wonder if the target was broader, like occupants in the building or on the campus in general.

Unless he seems suspicious and someone in the hallway questioned him, so he had to begin firing there. If he was waiting for a specific person or the professor, it might make sense that he would know about the study session and know when it would end to be there waiting. Timing is oddly close to the end of that study session. I'm curious to know if that room is the first one inside the building. Did he walk in and start shooting and then open the first door or did he walk in and wait around near that door, and something triggered him to start shooting before people from that class started exiting?

 

[justtrish]

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Do you know if Brown University has a lot of parking on the campus or is it more of a walking campus?

 

[Warwick1991]

Do you know if Brown University has a lot of parking on the campus or is it more of a walking campus?

It doesn't have many parking lots. It's a very old campus, with buildings dating to the 1700s and 1800s, built before automobiles became common. People generally park on residential side streets. It is difficult to park near campus on weekdays.

 

[O.Incandenza]

The shooter may not be familiar with university practices, such as the use of teaching assistants. He may have found schedules online or posted somewhere, but didn't realize that the professor herself wouldn't be present.

It's possible I guess. But finding the hours and location of a review session usually requires actually being in the class itself. Whereas you can often find a professor's office hours with a simple google search. Given that, it seems unlikely to me that the professor was the target. Maybe someone else in the class, although I'd still lean towards it likely being a broader motivation. A grudge against the school itself maybe? Or something more bizarre.

 

[Lore Listener]

The teaching assistant for the Economics class review session is 21 year old Joseph Oduro, from New Jersey.

He gives a gripping account of the shooting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/12/14/shooting-brown-university-witness/

Wow! What a wonderful young person! I'm sure his family is already beyond proud of his academic acheivements, but on top of that he's an empathetic, calm-under-pressure hero, too.

From the article:

While some students escaped through the side doors at the bottom of the classroom, others huddled with Oduro near the blackboard, all trying to stay as quiet as possible.
One of them was a first-year student from Massachusetts who had been shot twice in the leg. Oduro gave her his hand and told her to squeeze it. “I told her to put all the pain on me,” Oduro said. “I just kept telling her, ‘You’re going to be okay.’”
Oduro doesn’t know how long it took for police to arrive. As they waited, Oduro spoke with the wounded student’s parents on the phone since she was in shock and struggling to answer questions. He texted his own parents and told them he loved them.

 

[99cats]

It's possible I guess. But finding the hours and location of a review session usually requires actually being in the class itself. Whereas you can often find a professor's office hours with a simple google search. Given that, it seems unlikely to me that the professor was the target. Maybe someone else in the class, although I'd still lean towards it likely being a broader motivation. A grudge against the school itself maybe? Or something more bizarre.

Could the review session have coincided with office hours? When I was in undergrad, a few of my professors had weekend office hours during finals. I'm not sure if that's the same at Brown.