Joseph Oduro, a teaching assistant at Brown University, was delivering his closing remarks for his class’s last review session before finals when he heard something shocking: The sound of gunshots.
Screams rang out from outside the classroom, Oduro told CNN’s Dana Bash in a Sunday interview.
Then the gunman entered the auditorium, Oduro said – and locked eyes with him.
“He came in, pointed the gun, and then screamed something. I don’t know what he said, and none of the other students know what he said,” he recalled. “Then he just started shooting right after that.”
Oduro called his students to the front of the auditorium and called 911, huddled with around 20 students behind his desk.
“There wasn’t too much space, but we made do, because at the end of the day, we just all wanted to survive,” the 21-year-old, who helps teach economics to undergraduates, said. “The first couple of gunshots went straight to the chalkboard, exactly where I was standing” before ducking, he said.
It “felt like an eternity” before the shooting stopped. Oduro said he didn’t look up until public safety officers had entered the auditorium and assured them it was safe to leave.
One student in his classroom sustained two gunshot wounds to the leg, he said.
“My heart just goes to the students that didn’t make it out that room, the students that are in the hospital right now,” he said. “I haven’t really had the chance to process things myself, but I just want to make sure everybody else is okay.”
‘I locked eyes with him’: Teaching assistant recalls moment Brown University shooter entered his classroom
‘I locked eyes with him’: Teaching assistant recalls moment Brown University shooter entered his classroom
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