A Northville native attending Brown University was a block away when gunfire broke out on campus Saturday night. The fatal shooting killed two students and injured 9 others.
Sophie Treder spoke to Local 4’s Kyla Russell from the Boston airport. She changed her flight home for the holidays after the shooting so she could get home sooner.
On Saturday night, she was at her apartment in Providence, Rhode Island. Her mind was fixed on senior year final exams and getting home for winter break, until she received a text from her boyfriend.
“He was like ‘two people just got shot’ inside the library he was in,” Treder said.
The campus went under lockdown. Treder shut off her lights, called her parents, and sat in her dark apartment – just feet away from bloodshed inside the Barus and Holley building on campus.
“I was in there like two hours before this happened, meeting with a class that’s called ENGN1010,” Treder said. “We were meeting with our professor to discuss our final presentation.”
It’s a presentation she now won’t be there for.
“Horrendous. Terrifying. Surreal. Something you never could have predicted to happen, at Brown especially,” Treder said.
The scene is leaving a scar.
“I mean, I can see the building where it happened and how it’s taped off and stuff and police cars still on the street,” Treder said. “It’s a weird feeling.”
It’s a sobering sight for what the Northville native calls her home-away-from-home. She wants Brown to be known not for what happened this weekend, but as a community rooted in connection.
“It’s a very open campus,” she said. “Everyone helps each other. It’s small enough where you know everyone basically. It’s love. There’s so much love around the campus.”
Treder says she will be grateful to be back home in Northville and she’s hopeful campus will still feel like home, too, when she returns.