Rajan said, despite not knowing anyone else going to the school, she’s managed to make many friends during her freshman year at Brown.
But her first semester at the university took a sudden turn Dec. 12.
Around 4 p.m. that day, a gunman went into the Engineering and Physics building on campus and opened fire.
Nine students were injured in the attack and two students were killed.
The two students who were killed were 18-year-old Ella Cook and 19-year-old Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.
“My friend texted me and he was like ‘stay inside, active shooter,’” Rajan said.
Rajan said she sprinted to her dorm room, where she sheltered in place with her roommate for more than 12 hours.
“We barricaded our door, and closed our windows and turned off our lights,” Rajan said.
Rajan told us she felt helpless during that time in her dorm room. She said she was trying to find information on what was happening through social media, but said it was hard with a lot of misinformation being spread around.
“It was just very terrifying and at the same time, I was worried for a lot of my friends,” Rajan said.
Rajan said a freshman study session was happening in the classroom where the shooting took place.
“I had several friends who were in the room and several friends who were in the vicinity,” Rajan told us.
Rajan said she knew Umurzokov and even saw him earlier that day. She described him as kind and compassionate.
“He made an effort to remember my name the first time we met, and I know when college starts, it’s such a blur as to all of the people that you’re meeting,” Rajan said. “He made it a point to say hi to everyone and remember their names.”
She said learning about his death has hit her hard.
“He wanted to be a neurosurgeon since he was eight, and the world lost what would have been an amazing neurosurgeon,” Rajan said.
Rajan told us she’s practiced active shooter training in school since seventh grade, but many of her friends who are international students weren’t prepared for what happened.
“It was a uniquely American experience, I guess, that we had, and it’s something that is such a big thing here that isn’t as prevalent in other places,” Rajan said. “The realization of that, some people had no idea what to do in the situation, it’s just really jarring.”
Despite training for the situation in school, she said the real scenario was still hard to prepare for.
“When it’s right there, and it’s your friends and this new family you have, it’s devastating,” Rajan said.
Rajan is now back home in Mason. She said she caught the first flight she could the day after the shooting to be home with her family.
She plans to return to Brown when the next semester starts in January, but said she anticipates that life on campus won’t be the same.
“It’s going to be hard to start next semester, to know that two of our classmates, they weren’t able to see the first snow and they won’t be able to realize their dreams,” Rajan said. “The whole world is at a deficit because of it.”
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