A local Brown University graduate held a vigil Saturday to honor the victims of the crash Mass shooting last week.
Two students were killed and nine others were injured after a gunman opened fire at the University of Rhode Island on December 13.
Saturn Seljuk graduated from Brown University in 2023 and knows people who knew the students who died.
Seljuqi remembers feeling “an enormous amount of sadness” after the shooting, and wanting to reach out to others who were suffering.
“I personally wanted to be on campus, but the situation was so dire that I couldn’t safely go to my alma mater. So, I wanted to create a community for grieving alumni and people in general who felt connected to the event and gun violence in general.”
The vigil, held Saturday at the Carnegie Library’s Mount Washington branch in Pittsburgh, included light refreshments, a poem reading and a prayer.
Al-Saljuqi said that the tragedy that occurred on campus deeply affected the students.
“They are disturbed. They are terrified. In fact, the word terrorism is used for a reason. They have instilled terror in these young men.”
However, Seljuqi said the students were relieved when they learned that the suspected shooter had been found.
Related Coverage >>> An autopsy found that the suspect in the Brown University attack died two days before his body was found
Claudio Nieves Valiente, 48, was found dead in New Hampshire late Thursday. Authorities say he was also linked to the shooting death of an MIT professor days after the shooting at Brown University.
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