HUPD Boosts Security After Brown Shooting, Says No Threat to Harvard

Updated December 14, 2025, at 1:16 p.m.

The Harvard University Police Department has increased security on campus after a shooting at Brown University killed two people and hospitalized at least nine others, the department wrote in a Sunday statement to The Crimson.

Harvard officials said there is no indication of a threat to the University or affiliates, but officers have stepped up patrols “out of an abundance of caution,” HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote Sunday morning.

“Since learning of the shootings at Brown University yesterday afternoon, the Harvard University Police Department has been monitoring the situation to assess any potential impact on the Harvard community,” Catalano wrote. “At this time, there is no information indicating a credible threat to the campus or to its affiliates.”

Catalano added that the University has also begun requiring a Harvard ID swipe to enter the Smith Campus Center and the Science Center, which are typically open to the public.

Two students were killed and nine were hospitalized after a gunman opened fire in an academic building at Brown — just over an hour away from Harvard — Saturday evening. Seven of the hospitalized victims are in stable condition, one remains in critical but stable condition, and one has been released.

The shooting occurred between 4 and 5 p.m. in a first floor lecture hall where students were studying for a final exam in an introductory economics class, officials at Brown later said.

A person of interest was taken into custody early Sunday morning after a nearly 12-hour search, though the individual had not been formally charged as a suspect as of 10 a.m.

More than 400 law enforcement officers from federal and surrounding state agencies were dispatched to Providence on Saturday to aid in the search. Brown University Police issued a lockdown order shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, which remained active until just before 6 a.m. Sunday. Students and faculty spent the night hunkered in classrooms and dorms.

Other universities in close proximity to Brown have also ramped up security in response to the shooting. Columbia University, which sits just three hours away from Brown’s campus, announced that it would conduct additional “additional building checks” and pledged to work with the New York Police Department.

In response to the shooting, Brown administrators canceled all remaining final exams and classes and told students they could go home for winter break. Harvard has not changed its academic schedule, with exams intended to resume on Monday.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected].