On the fifth day after a gunman shot and killed two students at Brown University and injured others, it remains unknown what the perpetrator yelled during the Dec. 13 attack.
Reports that he might have shouted an Islamist phrase remain unsubstantiated, as the Ivy League school and federal and local law enforcement have remained tight-lipped.
Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant who was running the academic review session the gunman attacked, told The Wall Street Journal that the shooter “screamed something indecipherable.”
Oduro told CNN, “I don’t know what he said, and none of the other students know what he said.”
Nathan Miller, CEO and founder of the public relations and crisis management firm Miller Ink, told JNS that the university and authorities ought to act quickly, given that the Jewish community is “reeling” from “surging” antisemitism, particularly this week with the mass shooting on Sunday at a Chanukah event on Bondi Beach in Australia that left 15 people dead one day after the incident at Brown.
“With rumors swirling that an attacker may have been motivated by the professor’s Jewish identity or scholarship, silence from authorities and Brown only amplifies these fears,” Miller said.
The economics professor who taught the class—said to be one of the school’s most popular courses—who was not present at the time also teaches in the Judaic studies program. She mentions in her biography that she has worked in and researched Israel.
“If Brown University and local authorities wait too long to address the motive in this shooting, it will look like they’re downplaying the rapid rise in antisemitism we’re all witnessing in real time,” Miller said.
“Right now, it feels like open season on Jews—and that demands honest, timely communication from our institutions,” he said.
Josh Estrella, director of communications for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, told JNS that “we are not able to answer questions related to the ongoing investigation.”
“We are not currently aware of a motive, nor can we confirm if anything was yelled,” he said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS that “when you don’t know the facts, it allows you to start wondering what’s going on.”
“Somebody actually heard what those words are,” he said, of what the gunman yelled. “Maybe those investigating know what it is, and they’re not going to be sharing any significant information until this thing is solved.”
“Sooner or later, they will resolve this and the entire story will come out,” he said.
