Student, 20, issues emotional statement after surviving two mass shootings just 6 years apart
Topics: Crime, News, US News, Mental Health
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: CNN
Topics: Crime, News, US News, Mental Health
A survivor of this week's Brown University shooting has issued a gut-wrenching statement, having also made it out of the Parkland, Florida school shooting unscathed six years earlier.
Two students were killed and a further nine injured on Saturday (13 Dec) after a gunman opened fire inside a classroom of the prestigious Ivy League institution's engineering building.
According to a law enforcement official, the perpetrator fired more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun.
Colonel Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief added, that whilst a person of interest was taken into custody following the recovery of two handguns and two loaded 30-round magazines, that no one has yet been charged with the crime.
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Amongst the students in the vicinity at the time of the killings, was 20-year-old Zoe Weissman, who was also situated at the Rhode Island-based college on Saturday.
In 2018, however, the sophomore, 20, had been enrolled at a Parkland middle school in Florida, when gunman Nikolas Cruz entered the facility armed with a gun. As well as brutally murdering 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 27-year-old Cruz - who is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole - injured a further 18.
Of being present for two school shootings, Weissman told Ms Now this week: "I’m really angry. I’m really angry that this is happening to me all over again. And I’m just in shock."
The brave student went on to claim: "I think, mentally, I feel like I’m 12 again. This feels exactly how I felt in 2018."
Arguably even more harrowing, is that Weissmann added that her situation is hardly unique in modern day America.
Weissman explained that her situation of surviving multiple deadly school shootings was not unique to her.
"There’s already students who survived the school shooting in Oxford in Michigan," she explained. "And then went to Michigan State and survived another school shooting.
“This isn’t a new phenomenon, and we’re going to get to a point where there’s [more] people like myself who survived two of these," Weissman continued.
In light of this weekend's attack, Brown University President, Christina H. Paxson described the tragedy as 'a day that no university community is ever prepared for'.
One of the nine injured students is currently in critical condition, while a further six were of the same status, but are now stable.
Two others have also been stabilised, as per an update from NBC News.
The identities of the deceased are yet to be made public.