Nate Chinman was studying for a math final Saturday when a warning text from a friend just five minutes away in Brown University’s engineering and physics building upended everything: Don’t come by the engineering building.

Chinman, a 19-year-old Squirrel Hill native and graduate of Allerdice High School, was one of several Brown students who grew up in the Pittsburgh area that sheltered in place during the shooting attack that killed two students and wounded at least eight others during final exams at the Ivy League’s campus on Saturday.

As these Brown students returned home to Pittsburgh following the incident, reporters reached out to hear their stories.

‘Tight community’

Applied math economics major Matthew Purcell, 20, of the North Hills, had just taken a step outside of his suite when he got a message that a building, which he frequented throughout his academic career, had been the target of a shooter.

“The class that it happened at — I took that class. It was a freshman year and … one of the biggest classes on campus,” Purcell said. “I think it had over 400 students.”

Purcell graduated from Avonworth High School and took an offer to swim at Brown, where he became president of the university’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

This position made him privy to many of the student athletes who were in the room during the introductory course’s review session on Saturday.

“Being within athletics … that’s a very tight community,” he said.

Purcell declined to provide the names of anyone he specifically knew that had been a victim of the attack. But he verified that a handful of the students wounded were involved in Brown’s athletic programs.

Purcell said he knew some of his swim teammates had been enrolled in the class, but skipped the review session — including one of his roommates, who was home at their suite during the shooting.

“I just think everyone who decided not to go that day or even if they weren’t planning on it in the first place, I think they’re just feeling really lucky and grateful,” he said.

Purcell, along with his two suitemates and one of their girlfriends, locked their door and hid together inside one of their bedrooms until around 8:30 a.m. the next morning.

Following the incident, Brown cancelled all remaining finals and instructed students to head home.

Purcell said he split an Uber with one of his teammates and headed to meet his twin sister, who goes to Boston University, before flying back home to Pittsburgh Sunday night.

Through the window

Biomedical engineering student Claire Cho, 20, of the North Hills, was in her dorm building with her headphones on when she began to hear sirens.

“I looked out the window and saw more police than I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Cho, who graduated from North Allegheny High School, in a statement.

Cho declined to say what dorm she lived in but said it was close enough to have a good view of what was happening.

“I initially thought it was a fire, but I checked social media right after and found out it was an active shooter,” her statement said.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Cho called her mom but didn’t have much information to relay to her. Cho said herself and her roommate sat in their room in the dark and watched the news, hoping for details but nothing was released.

“I couldn’t eat or drink or move or anything because I was so anxious,” she said.

While Cho didn’t know anyone who was a shooting victim she’s trying to process what happened. She finds herself still replaying what she saw out the window.

“I hope time can heal this, but for now, I’m struggling,” she said in her statement Monday.

Reuniting

After having to spend the night sleeping at his friend’s Chapin House dorm Saturday night due to the shelter-in-place order issued by the university, Chinman went to meet with the friend that had sent him the warning text.

Chinman’s friend, an engineering and physics student, had been in the building when the shooting took place.

Chinman said his friend hid with some other students until law enforcement knocked on the door and found them. Chiman’s friend and the other students were then escorted out and picked up by another student who brought them an apartment off campus.

“I’d known for a long time that they had been safe, but yeah, it was still really great to see them,” Chinman said about reconnecting with his friend following the attack. “It was a very surreal experience, and sort of hard to sort of wrap my head around it.”

Finding out through FaceTime

Henry Fried, 20, of Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood, had been walking around Frick Park when his fraternity brothers started notifying him that there was a shooting.

Fried, a Shady Side Academy graduate, was not on campus because he had just returned home from studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“I immediately FaceTimed one of my best friends on campus who was on the 13th floor of the (Brown University Sciences Library) sort of right across from the building,” Fried said.

Following the attack, Fried said he stayed in really close contact with his friends and called to check-in every 30 minutes.

Fried said he learned that one of his fraternity brothers had brought Ella Cook, who was one of the students killed during the shooting, to a formal dance last winter.

“I’ve met her briefly before, but we didn’t necessarily know each other,” he said. “Even though I didn’t have a close connection with her, and I feel deeply for all the people I know who were close with her.”

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