Survivor’s Eva Erickson Says She Was at Site of Brown Shooting Minutes Before Receiving Alert: ‘So Extremely Lucky’

Survivor alum Eva Erickson says she was in the area of Brown University’s Barus & Holley building shortly before an on-campus shooting that left at least two students dead and several others injured.

Brown University officials first warned of an active shooter near Barus & Holley — a computer lab and engineering building — shortly after 4 p.m. local time on Saturday, Dec. 13. Erickson, the Survivor 48 runner-up and a Ph.D. candidate in engineering and fluid and thermal science at the Ivy League school, said she had just left the building moments earlier.

In a since-expired Instagram Stories post shared that day, Erickson wrote that she was safe and said she had left her lab about 15 minutes before the alert, according to Entertainment Weekly.

She later posted a longer video update while sheltering during a lockdown, describing how close she felt she came to the violence.

“I am so, so extremely lucky that I was very unproductive at work today,” Erickson said in a video filmed around 11 p.m. Saturday. She explained she had been in her office near Barus & Holley until about 4 p.m., then impulsively decided to leave for the gym — something she said she rarely does in the afternoon. About 20 minutes later, she said, the warning came through.

“I was leaving the building within five minutes of the shooter coming in,” Erickson added.

Erickson said she remained at the gym for roughly four hours before authorities moved people to an athletic center. She described the immediate aftermath as tense and disorienting, recalling that lights were turned on, shades were drawn, and people sat on the ground while calling loved ones and checking on friends.

In another update posted the next day, Erickson said she and other students who live off-campus were released from lockdown around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 14. She also noted that Brown canceled all exams in the wake of the attack and sent students home early for winter break.

“On campus today has just been so eerie,” she said, adding that many students were trying to leave quickly to be with family and feel safe again.

Erickson also expressed gratitude for the support she said she has received from her campus community, while underscoring how narrowly she believes she avoided harm.

“You think that this is never gonna happen to you… It was never gonna happen on Brown, right?” she said. “But it did… and that’s what’s so scary.”

“It just makes me so sad,” Erickson added. “We never would have expected [this], and now we have lost two students. Something needs to change.”

Family members have identified the two victims killed in the Dec. 13 shooting as Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.

The identity and location of the gunman remained unknown as of Monday, Dec. 15, when the FBI announced at a press conference that it was offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the suspect. Officials have also said there is no known threat to residents, while noting they do not know whether the shooter is still in the city or state.