Brown University junior Mia Tretta, a survivor of the 2019 Saugus High School mass shooting in Santa Clarita, California, found herself reliving trauma during a deadly campus shooting on December 13, 2025. Tretta, then 15, was shot in the abdomen in the high school attack that killed two students and wounded three others. Now 21 and studying international and public affairs at Brown, she was in her dorm studying for finals when emergency alerts warned of an active shooter in the Barus and Holley engineering building.

The shooting at Brown left two students dead and nine others injured, with victims transported to Rhode Island Hospital. Authorities initially detained a person of interest but released him without charges on December 14, resuming the manhunt. The attack occurred during a final exam review session, prompting a campus lockdown that extended overnight before being lifted. University officials cancelled all remaining classes, exams, and projects for the fall semester.

Tretta, who has become a prominent gun violence prevention advocate with Students Demand Action, told reporters no one should endure one school shooting, let alone two. She chose Brown for its sense of safety and normalcy after her high school ordeal, where she underwent multiple surgeries and still carries bullet fragments. Her advocacy has included White House appearances and a focus on regulating ghost guns, like the one used in her shooting.

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Another Brown student, Zoe Weissman, also survived proximity to violence as a middle schooler near the 2018 Parkland shooting. The incident highlights a grim pattern for some young adults who practised active-shooter drills in K-12 only to face real threats in college, underscoring ongoing debates over gun access in the US.

Tretta was working on an academic paper about school shooting survivors' educational paths when the alerts arrived. She emphasised that the violence "didn't have to" happen, renewing calls for preventive measures.

As the Providence community mourns with vigils and support gatherings, the shooting adds to a year marked by numerous campus incidents, intensifying national conversations on safety and policy reform.

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