On the menu today: My colleagues Kamden Mulder, Phil Klein, and Noah Rothman will get you up to speed on the latest violent outbreak of murderous antisemitism, the appalling, outrage-inducing Bondi Beach mass shooting in Australia. The suspects are Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, a father and son. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that “Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, examined one of the Bondi Beach gunmen six years ago over his close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State terrorism cell,” and reportedly, “Two IS flags were found in their car at Bondi Beach.” Apparently, Australian authorities determined he represented no ongoing threat. Once again, if you see something, say something, so the authorities can do nothing.
This morning, my attention is on the mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where the shooter is still at large, and the public statements from law enforcement and university officials have been anything but clarifying. Read on.
The Horror at Brown
What we know is that shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, students were wrapping up a final exam review session for Econ 110, the “Principles of Economics” course, in auditorium 166 in the Barus and Holley Building on the campus of Brown University when a masked gunman, dressed all in black, burst into the auditorium and started shooting.
Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant who was running the study review session, told the Washington Post that the shooter “yelled something unintelligible,” and he was carrying “the longest gun I’ve ever seen in my life.” (A law enforcement source told the Associated Press that the shooter had fired more than 40 rounds from a nine-millimeter handgun.)
The shooter killed two students and injured nine more; according to a statement from Brown University president Christina Paxson released Sunday, seven of the students are in critical but stable condition and one remains in critical condition.
At this point, we do not know if the shooter’s motive is related to the professor of this class, but considering the events in Australia and the timing of the shooting near the start of Hanukah, the professor’s identity seems worth noting:
Rachel Friedberg is Teaching Professor of Economics, Faculty Associate of the Program in Judaic Studies, and Faculty Associate of the Population Studies and Training Center. Friedberg earned her Ph.D. at MIT, joining Brown as an Assistant Professor, and serving for four years on the faculty of the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on the economics of immigration, specifically econometric analysis of the outcomes and impacts of immigrants in the United States and Israel, about which she has testified before Congress and participated in Knesset committee deliberations. She is currently exploring the intersection of economics and Jewish studies.
Friedberg’s Principles of Economics course is the most popular class at Brown, taken by half of all undergraduates. [Emphasis added.]
One of the slain students has been identified:
The first victim of the deadly school shooting at Brown University has been identified as a sophomore student and vice president of the school’s college Republican club, Ella Cook, according to her Alabama parish and a former classmate.
The news of Cook’s death was shared during a service at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in her hometown of Birmingham.
Cook was one of the church’s parishioners who fostered a deep engagement with the community through her frequent service at the church, a priest said during the Mass.
Now, perhaps it’s entirely coincidental that the professor of the class targeted was part of the university’s program in Judaic Studies and had ties to Israel, and perhaps it is also a coincidence that the vice president of the school’s college Republicans is among those killed. Perhaps the shooter is just some nut. But after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and all the post-October 7 antisemitism rampant on college campuses, these are not irrational thoughts about potential motives and why the shooter selected this particular time and place for his rampage.
On Sunday, Providence Police Department detained who they called a “person of interest,” but shortly after midnight, the department posted on X, “Tonight, we announced that the person of interest is being released. The investigation has been ongoing and remains fully active between all agencies. Since the first call to 911, we have not received any specific threats to our community.”
Boy, that word “specific” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because there is a mass shooter on the loose, and it’s not like he announced his intentions beforehand.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told the public, in a late Sunday evening press conference, “Ever since the initial call now a day and a half ago, we have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community. So, the status of safety in our community remains unchanged, and we believe that you remain safe in our community.”
Yes, but everyone believed they were safe in that community Saturday morning, too.
State attorney general Peter Neronha said during the same press conference, “We have a murderer out there, frankly.”
Then there was this exchange:
Reporter: So, is it safe to say that you all believe at this point is the suspect behind the shooting, are they still in this community? I know you said there’s not danger to this community, but is that person, do you believe they’re still here? Have they left the state?
Mayor Smiley: We have no way of knowing. The investigation is ongoing.
Authorities do have video of a person of interest, but apparently that has not generated any useful leads.
Smiley said, “At this time we have no additional actionable information from the video that has been reviewed from the building. And so we are looking for new and additional video evidence. . . . The video that was released was the corner of Hope and Waterman Streets. If you are in that area and you have video, you have home video, ring camera, security camera, you’re a small business owner, please reach out to us. Call that number 401-272-3121.”
The FBI is also welcoming tips in the investigation.
One reporter asked, in a state where speeding cameras and other surveillance cameras seemed to be everywhere, how someone could commit a mass shooting on a major college campus and not get caught on video in some fashion that would generate a clue or lead.
Neronha responded, “There just weren’t a lot of cameras in that Brown building. . . . The reality is, it’s an old building attached to a new one. . . . We’re not holding back video that we think would be useful.”
Law enforcement has a difficult job. But, at least according to what we’re hearing from witnesses, an individual brought either “a long gun” or a 9mm handgun onto a college campus on a Saturday afternoon, at some point slipped on a mask, went on a shooting rampage firing more than 40 rounds, killed two people and injured nine more, was at no point confronted by anyone in law enforcement or campus security, managed to not have his face captured by any surveillance camera, and escaped the scene, leaving little or no clue to his identity or motive.
It is hard to begrudge the communities of Brown University or Providence for feeling less than safe.
ADDENDUM: Noah, concluding his thoughts on the massacre of Jews in Australia: “Bloody consequences accompany the impoverishment of the stigma around antisemitism. A civilized people would not tolerate that as the price of doing business in the marketplace of ideas. A civilized people would stand up for civilization. Is that who we are anymore?”