Nadya Chase, a Wayland High School graduate and Brown University sophomore, was in her dorm room on Dec. 13 when she received a text from her friend saying, “Stay inside, there have been shots reported near the engineering building.” About 20 minutes later, she and all Brown students received a BrownUAlert, the university’s emergency alert system, warning of an active shooter and instructing students to shelter in place.

Chase immediately checked Brown University’s Side Chat, an anonymous social media app and student forum, for messages on the shooting, which killed two students and injured nine others in Brown University’s Barus and Holley Engineering Building. She then locked and barricaded her doors, closed the windows and texted her parents.

“I am definitely very shaken up,” Chase said. “I just kind of keep getting flashbacks to when that was happening and all the texts I was getting. I’m still checking in on all my friends, making sure they’re okay.”

Before the shooting, Chase and a friend walked to Nitro Bar, about a 40-minute walk from her dorm. They decided to Uber back from Nitro Bar.

“I’m realizing now if we hadn’t Ubered back, we would have been outside in that area where the shooting had taken place,” Chase said. “I’m just very grateful that we decided to Uber back.”

Chase’s family picked her up at around 1 p.m. on Sunday to bring her back home to Wayland.

“I think we [Brown students] are still all very scared, and it’s still a very scary environment,” Chase said. “Even though we’re so far away from where it happened, it’s definitely been helping to be home and around my family.”

Wayland High School graduates and Brown University sophomores Jayanth Mani and Nora Edouarzin were both off campus when they received alerts of the shooting.

Mani said he woke up on Saturday morning feeling ill. After telling his mother, they decided he should come home. His mom picked him up in Providence, R.I., at around 3:30 p.m.. While in the car, he learned about the shooting through a dorm room group chat.

“I was like first of all just [in] shock about what was happening,” Mani said. “Part of me feels a little bad, almost guilty for being able to have escaped it and not have to render it. Honestly it’s like some strange emotions.”

Mani is studying computer engineering and often has classes in the Barus and Holley Engineering Building.

“The classroom where the shooting happened was where I had a class this semester, so that’s also just tough,” Mani said. “I’ve even shown that classroom to a bunch of people who have just visited Brown too. Going back will definitely be tough emotionally for all of us, especially engineering and STEM majors who spend a lot of time in the [Barus and Holley] building.”

Mani said his roommate was in the design workshop room when the shooting happened, which was next to the room where the shooting occurred.

“There was actually a group of five people who were in the design workshop when the shooting happened who came to our dorm room because they needed to evacuate,” Mani said. “[My roommate] was right in the middle. He was very shaken.”

Edouarzin was in Boston on a day trip when the shooting took place. She was visiting a friend that flew in from New York. Edouarzin almost canceled her meet up because her friend’s flight kept getting delayed. If her friend had arrived later, Edouarzin said she likely would’ve been studying for finals in the library next to Barus and Holley.

One of Edouarzin’s friends was in the library next to Barus and Holley when the shooting happened. Her friend was eventually escorted by SWAT to Brown University’s gym along with other students.

“I texted everyone I know,” Edouarzin said. “Everyone I texted was okay, but scared. [They were in a] shelter in place, and I kept on texting them and getting updates because the shelter in place was pretty long.”

The Brown Daily Herald, the university’s student newspaper, reported that the shooter entered Barus and Holley and opened fire at around 4:00 p.m.. At 4:22 p.m. the first ‘BrownUAlert’ was sent out to students warning of an active shooter.

“The community has never been more active on SideChat, and there’s just been so many uplifting messages from everyone [on SideChat],” Mani said.

On 5:42 a.m. on Sunday, a BrownUAlert alerted students the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. The order began at 4:22 p.m. on Saturday and lasted more than 12 hours.

“In the streets I walk on, my classrooms, my friends’ dorms, [it’s] covered in police tape, and with Police and SWAT swarming [the campus],” Chase said. “It’s just like the most insane thing.”

GoFundMe pages have been set up by the victims’ family and friends. The family of Umurzokov, a 19-year-old who was killed in the shooting, created GoFundMe fundraiser to cover expenses and funeral costs, with remaining funds going to causes in Umorzokov’s name. Another GoFundMe was set up to help pay medical expenses for those injured in the shooting.

“I also think that I have seen such a beautiful community in Brown,” Edouarzin said. “I’ve seen the GoFundMe’s for one of the victims, but all of them in general [have raised money] very fast. I’ve seen students offering each other things like, ‘Hey, you can stay at my house.’ [I’ve been] seeing people come together and seeing alumni reach out and offer to give the students rides [to the airport].”

Community members in Providence came together on Dec. 14 to hold a vigil for Umorzokov and Ella Cook, students whose lives were taken in the shooting.

“I think the hard thing is definitely seeing the media response, “ Chase said. “There’s a lot of people right now trying to spin these poor people’s deaths into something political or something that it wasn’t.”

More GoFundMe pages have been created, including fundraisers for Matthew Wang and Jacob Spear, two Brown students who were injured in the shooting. Another GoFundMe was created to support the families of students injured in the shooting.

“I think that Brown will come out stronger from this,” Edouarzin. “But [this is] definitely not something that you just get over it. [We will] never really be the same, but maybe the community [will] become more close-knit.”

A memorial for Umorzokov and Cook has been set up on campus, with photos and flowers left in their memory.

“The focus should be on remembering the victims and supporting their families as the community tries to heal from this,” Edouarzin said.