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On December 13, 2025, a horrific shooting at Brown University’s Barus and Holley engineering building left two students dead and nine more wounded, shattering the illusion that elite campuses are immune from the violence sweeping our country. For hardworking Americans who send their kids to college trusting schools to keep them safe, this is a gut punch — a reminder that ideological pieties and performative safety drills do not stop real-world predators.
Now police have released enhanced surveillance video showing a person of interest walking near campus in dark clothing, a black beanie, a green jacket, and a cross-body bag — footage captured just hours before the carnage. Authorities are asking anyone who recognizes the individual to come forward, and the new imagery should be a clarion call to citizens to help law enforcement put this criminal behind bars.
Yet even as investigators race to find the shooter, the public was treated to the troubling spectacle of a suspect briefly detained and then released after forensic analysis — a sequence that breeds confusion and undermines trust in the process. Officials say ballistics did not match the weapon found with the detained man, and local leaders had to walk back earlier claims, leaving families and students to wonder whether information is being handled with the seriousness it deserves.
Those mixed messages also expose the danger of law enforcement and federal officials playing the PR game in the middle of an active manhunt. When the bureau and its leadership rush to post updates and claim quick wins, only to retract or revise them, it looks like showboating rather than sober police work — and it erodes confidence at a time when citizens need to believe their protectors are methodical, not headline-chasing.
Brown’s campus was plunged into chaos during finals week, with shelter-in-place orders, canceled exams, and terrified parents and students scrambling for answers — the exact opposite of the calm competence families expect from institutions that promise safety and sanctuary. Colleges that preach virtue-signaling and lecture the rest of the country about morals must be held to account when their own policies, security posture, and culture leave students exposed to violence.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward and authorities continue to canvass the East Side of Providence, collecting tips and video from residents; the manhunt must be relentless and free of political theater. Americans who value law and order want results: a thorough investigation, real arrests, and no more politicized press briefings that substitute for investigative rigor.
We must grieve for the victims and their families — including a promising young student who served as a leader in the campus Republican club — and channel that grief into holding institutions accountable and demanding better from our leaders. If Washington bureaucrats and university administrators won’t prioritize protecting students, the rest of us must insist on accountability, clearer security measures, and a return to common-sense law enforcement that puts public safety above optics and ideology.
