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On Saturday, December 13, 2025, a gunman opened fire inside the Barus and Holley engineering building at Brown University during final exams, killing two students and wounding nine others in what has become Rhode Island’s deadliest campus attack in memory. The assault happened in a crowded review session and left a stunned campus scrambling for answers as investigators pieced together a chaotic timeline of events.
Providence police and federal agents have released surveillance stills and video showing a masked individual moving on the East Side near campus in the hours before the shooting, and the FBI has publicly offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the suspect’s arrest. Law enforcement says the figure was seen “casing” the area and has urged the public to turn over any footage or tips to help identify the shooter.
The investigation has been plagued by confusion and missteps, including the dramatic detention and then release of a person of interest after officials briefly declared the case resolved — a reversal that only deepened public frustration and raised questions about competence. Students and residents rightfully demanded clearer communication as police admitted they were essentially starting over, and the community was left wondering why authorities seemed to stutter at the most critical moments.
As Rob Finnerty rightly asked on his program, what are these people trying to hide, and why has simple transparency been so elusive? Conservatives see a pattern here: bureaucratic puffery and performative statements from campus and city leaders while real accountability and timely answers are sacrificed to protect institutions. Trust in law enforcement is earned by results and candor, not late-night press corrections and vague assurances.
This tragic episode also exposes the failed thinking that has left our campuses soft and vulnerable — thousands of cameras and alert apps mean nothing if the protocols, staffing, and real deterrents are not in place. It’s time for a sober, conservative reset: prioritize hardened entry points, trained armed response teams, and policies that respect the rights of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves when seconds count. Universities must stop treating safety as a PR problem and start treating it like the existential responsibility it is.
Hardworking Americans — parents, professors, and students — deserve swift answers, an aggressive manhunt, and a transparent investigative process that puts public safety over optics. The FBI and Providence police owe the victims and this community an accounting of what happened, why mistakes were made, and how they will be fixed so families can begin to heal. If our public servants cannot deliver clarity and competence, voters must demand it at every level.
