MASON — An Ohio high school graduate and Brown University Student was on campus on Dec. 13 when a gunman opened fire.
Mason High School graduate Ramya Rajan said getting into Brown was a dream come true, according to our news partner, WCPO.
“It was actually a year from Saturday that I got in,” said Rajan.
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She made friends at the university, despite not knowing anyone else who was attending.
Rajan said her freshman year of college took a turn on Saturday when a gunman went into the Engineering and Physics building and opened fire.
Nine students were injured in the attack, and two students were killed.
The two students who died were identified as 18-year-old Ella Cook and 19-year-old Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.
Rajan said she sprinted to her dorm room and sheltered in place with her roommate after receiving a text message from her friend that there was an active shooter.
“We barricaded our door, and closed our windows and turned off our lights,” Rajan said.
Rajan and her roommate sheltered in place for more than 12 hours, she said.
As she was in her dorm room, she said she felt helpless and was trying to find information online about what was happening, said it was hard with a lot of misinformation that was being spread around.
“It was just very terrifying and at the same time, I was worried for a lot of my friends,” Rajan said.
A freshman study session was taking place in the classroom where the shooting happened, Rajan said.
Rajan said, “I had several friends who were in the room and several friends who were in the vicinity.”
She said she knew Umurzokov and had saw him earlier in the 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.
Learning of his death was hard, she said.
“He wanted to be a neurosurgeon since he was 8, and the world lost what would have been an amazing neurosurgeon,” Rajan said.
Rajan said that she’s practiced active shooter drills in school since seventh grade.
Many of her friends are international students and were not 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.
She said it was jarring that some people didn’t know what to do in this situation.
Even with the training from school, Rajan said the real experience 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.
She is back home in Mason after catching the first flight she could the day after the shooting.
Rajan plans to return to Brown University in January, but said that campus life 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.
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