By LEAH WILLINGHAM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn’t wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts — through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive.

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On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time.

An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social media has become central to how students navigate campus emergencies.

Fifteen minutes before the university’s first alert of an active shooter, students were already documenting the chaos. Their posts — raw, fragmented and sometimes panicked — formed a digital time capsule of how a college campus experienced a mass shooting.

As students sheltered in place, they posted while hiding under library tables, crouching in classrooms and hallways. Some comments even came from wounded students, like one posting a selfie from a hospital bed with the simple caption: #finalsweek.

Others asked urgent questions: Was there a lockdown? Where was the shooter? Was it safe to move?

It would be days before authorities identified the suspect and found him dead in New Hampshire of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, later linking him to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

Here’s a look at how the shooting unfolded.

FILE – Law enforcement officers are seen outside a storage facility where a suspect in the shooting at Brown University was found dead, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha, File)

Stream of collective consciousness

Described by Harvard Magazine as “the College’s stream of collective consciousness,” Sidechat allows anyone with a verified university email to post to a campus feed. On most days, the Brown feed is filled with complaints about dining hall food, jokes about professors and stress about exams — fleeting posts running the gamut of student life.

On the Saturday afternoon just before the shooting, a student posted about how they wished they could “play Minecraft for 60 hours straight.” Then, the posts abruptly shifted.

Crowds began pouring out of Brown’s Barus and Holley building, and someone posted at 4:06 p.m.: “Why are people running away from B&H?”

Others quickly followed. “EVERYONE TAKE COVER,” one wrote. “STAY AWAY FROM THAYER STREET NEAR MACMILLAN 2 PEOPLE JUST GOT SHOT IM BEING DEAD SERIOUS,” another user wrote at 4:10 p.m.

Dozens of frantic messages followed as students tried to fill the information gap themselves.

“so r we on lockdown or what,” one student asked.

By the time the university alert was sent at 4:21 p.m., the shooter was no longer on campus — a fact Brown officials did not yet know.

“Where would we be without Sidechat?” one student wrote.

A university spokesperson said Brown’s alert reached 20,000 people minutes after the school’s public safety officials were notified shots had been fired. Officials deliberately didn’t use sirens to avoid sending people rushing to seek shelter into harm’s way, said the spokesperson, Brian E. Clark, who added Brown commissioned two external reviews of the response with the aim of enhancing public safety and security.

Long hours of hiding

Long after the sun had set, students sheltered in dark dorm rooms and study halls. Blinds were closed. Doors were barricaded with dressers, beds and mini fridges.

“Door is locked windows are locked I’ve balanced a metal pipe thing on the handle so if anyone even tries the handle from the outside it’ll make a loud noise,” one student wrote.

FILE – Photos of Brown University shooting victims Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, are seen amongst flowers at a makeshift memorial at the school’s Van Wickle Gate, Dec. 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Students reacted to every sound — footsteps in hallways, distant sirens, helicopters overhead. When alerts came, the vibrations and ringtones were jarring. Some feared that names of the dead would be released — and that they would recognize someone they knew.

Law enforcement moved through campus buildings, clearing them floor by floor.

A student who fled Barus and Holley asked whether anyone could text his parents to let them know he had made it out safely. Others said they had left phones behind in classrooms when they fled, unable to reach frantic loved ones. Ironically, those closest to the shooting often had the least information.

Many American students expressed emotions hovering between numbness and heartbreak.

“Just got a text from a friend I haven’t spoken to in nearly three years,” one student wrote. “Our last messages? Me checking in on her after the shooting at Michigan State.” Multiple students replied, saying they’d had similar experiences.

International students posted about parents unable to sleep on the other side of the world.

“I just want a hug from my mom,” one student wrote.

FILE – A snowman begins to sag on the usually-bustling Main Green at Brown University, where the fall semester was canceled a week early following the campus shooting, Dec. 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Anxiety sets in

As the hours dragged on, students struggled with basic needs. Some described urinating in trash cans or empty laundry detergent bottles because they were too afraid to leave their rooms. Others spoke of drinking to cope.

“I was on the street when it happened & suddenly I felt so scared,” one student wrote. “I ran and didn’t calm down for a while. I feel numb, tired, & about to throw up.”

Another wrote: “I’m locked inside! Haven’t eaten anything today! I’m so scared i don’t even know if I get out of this alive or dead.”

Some students posted into the early morning, more than 10 hours into the lockdown, saying they couldn’t sleep. Sidechat also documented acts of kindness, including a student going door to door with macaroni and cheese cups in a dark dorm.

Information, and its limits

Students repeatedly asked the same questions — news? sources? — and challenged one another to verify what they saw before reposting it.

“Frankly I’d rather hear misinformation than people not report stuff they’ve heard,” one student wrote.

FILE – A poster seeking information about the campus shooting suspect is seen on the campus of Brown University, Dec. 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Others pushed back, sharing a Google Doc that would grow to 28 pages where students could find the most updated, verified information. Some posted police scanner transcriptions or warned against relying on artificial intelligence summaries of the developing situation. Professors — who rarely post on the app — joined the feed, urging caution and offering reassurance.

“If you’re talking about the active situation please add a source!!!” one student wrote.

But “reliable information,” students noted, often arrived with a delay.

Within about 30 minutes of the shooting, posts incorrectly claimed the shooter had been caught. Reports of more gunshots — later proven false — continued into the night and the next day, fueling fear and frustration. Asked one student, what are police doing “RIGHT NOW”?

Replies came quickly.

“They are trying their best,” one person responded. “Be grateful,” another added. “They are putting their lives in danger at this moment for us to be safe.”

A campus changed

Students awoke Sunday to a campus they no longer recognized. It had snowed overnight — the first snowfall of the academic year.

In post after post, students called the sight unsettling. What was usually a celebration felt instead like confirmation something had irrevocably shifted.

“It truly hurt seeing the flakes fall this morning, beautiful and tragic,” one student wrote.

Even as the lockdown lifted, many said they were unsure what to do — where they could go, whether dining halls were open, whether it was safe to move.

“What do I do rn?” one student posted. “I’m losing my mind.”

Students walked through fresh snow in a daze, heading to blood donation centers. Others noticed flowers being placed at the campus gates and outside Barus and Holley.

Many mourned not only the two students killed, but the innocence they felt had been stripped from their campus.

“Will never see the first snow of the season and not think about those two,” one student wrote.

With the lockdown ended, students returned to their dorms as Sidechat continued to fill with grief and reflection. Many said Brown no longer felt the same.

“Snow will always be bloody for me,” one person posted.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration and Louisiana officials have lifted another decades-old school desegregation order, part of a campaign to end court mandates they describe as outdated.

A federal judge on Monday approved a joint motion from Louisiana and the U.S. Justice Department to dismiss a 1967 lawsuit in DeSoto Parish schools, a district of about 5,000 students in the state’s northwest. It’s the second such dismissal since the Justice Department began working to overturn desegregation cases it once championed.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill thanked President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday for “helping us to finally end some of these cases.”

“DeSoto Parish has its school system back,” Murrill said in a statement. “For the last 10 years, there have been no disputes among the parties, yet the consent decree remained.”

The case dates to 1967, when the Justice Department sued DeSoto Parish to end its racially segregated school system. The case resulted in a 1970 court order requiring the district to eliminate segregation and provide regular progress reports. The order was modified several times over the decades but there had been little activity in recent years.

In the motion for dismissal, Louisiana and Trump officials said the order was no longer needed.

“While this case has been pending for over a half-century, there has been no dispute among the parties since 2014,” they wrote in a Dec. 30 court filing. “The parties thus are no longer adverse, and there is no case or controversy.”

Their motion was approved by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr., who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

State officials say the court orders place an unfair burden on school districts. Districts under such orders usually have to get approval from the court to build new schools, change attendance boundaries or make policy changes touching on court orders.

Civil rights groups say the orders are needed to fight the enduring impact of racial discrimination.

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DeSoto went to the court for numerous changes over the years, including new attendance zones in 2014 that remain in place today. The district also files status reports showing the racial breakdown of students and teachers, along with data on student transfers. The district’s last report was filed in October.

Louisiana Republicans see the decades-old desegregation orders as a challenge to local control and have worked to get them lifted in recent years. Working alongside Trump’s justice officials, they successfully dismissed a 1966 order in the Plaquemines Parish.

In the Plaquemines case, the lawsuit had been idle for decades after the judge overseeing it died in the 1970s.

An effort to overturn a 1960s order in Concordia Parish schools has faced pushback from a federal court. A judge in that case rejected a motion to dismiss the suit, saying Concordia must first demonstrate it has fully ended segregation. State and federal officials are appealing the decision.

The Concordia case was originally brought by Black families who demanded access to the town’s all-white schools.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension issued a statement Thursday saying that it is no longer part of the investigation into an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis. The full statement is below:

On Jan. 7, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was notified that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel were involved in a shooting in Minneapolis that resulted in a woman’s death. That morning, after consultation with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, it was decided that the BCA Force Investigations Unit would conduct a joint investigation with the FBI. The BCA responded promptly to the scene and began coordinating investigative work in good faith.

Later that afternoon, the FBI informed the BCA that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.

Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands. As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation. The BCA Force Investigations Unit was designed to ensure consistency, accountability and public confidence, none of which can be achieved without full cooperation and jurisdictional clarity.

The BCA Force Investigations Unit was created in 2020 by the legislature to provide an independent, consistent and trusted mechanism for investigating use of force incidents involving law enforcement officers. This unit is the result of years of scrutiny, public engagement and bipartisan legislative action following the Deadly Force Encounters Working Group. Minnesotans made it clear that they expect a transparent and thorough process when a peace officer uses deadly force in our state, and the BCA has earned their trust by delivering on that expectation.

We expect the FBI to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and that the full investigative file will be shared with the appropriate prosecutorial authorities at both the state and federal levels.

The BCA remains fully committed to our partnerships to build public trust in use of deadly force investigations. If the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI were to reconsider this approach and express a willingness to resume a joint investigation, the BCA is prepared to reengage in support of our shared goal of public safety in Minnesota.

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By STAN CHOE

NEW YORK (AP) — Modest moves for Wall Street overall on Thursday are masking some big gains underneath the surface for makers of weapons and other military equipment after President Donald Trump said he wants to increase spending on them sharply.

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Wall Street’s strong start to the year slows as stocks drift

The S&P 500 dipped 0.1% in midday trading, coming off its first loss in four days, and remains near its all-time high set earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 272 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.

The majority of stocks climbed as yields ticked higher in the bond market following mixed reports on the U.S. economy.

The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, a potential indicator of increasing layoffs, but by no more than economists expected. Other reports said U.S. workers improved their productivity by more in the summer than economists expected, while the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in October.

On Wall Street, defense-industry companies led the market after Trump said he wants to increase U.S. military spending to $1.5 trillion in 2027 from $901 billion in order to build the “Dream Military.”

Northrop Grumman climbed 4.3%, Lockheed Martin soared 5.3% and L3Harris Technologies jumped 5.8%. They more than made up their losses from the prior day, when Trump complained defense contractors were making military equipment too slowly.

RTX came under particular criticism by Trump, and its stock rose less than peers. It added 2% after Trump said that it was the “slowest in increasing their volume.”

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday calling on the Pentagon to ensure future contracts with contractors contain a provision prohibiting their ability to buy back their own stock during a period of underperformance on U.S. government contracts.

Another winner on Wall Street was Constellation Brands, which climbed 4.8% after the beer and wine company reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

That helped offset drops for several technology stocks that held back the overall market. Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after dropping 2.3%, which gave back some of its big gain of nearly 40% last year.

Elsewhere, oil prices jumped to continue their zigzags since Trump ousted the leader of Venezuela last weekend.

A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 1.8% to $57.02. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2% to $61.14 per barrel.

Venezuela is potentially sitting on more oil than any other country in the world, and any increase in production could push further downward on prices, which have already fallen on expectations for plentiful supplies. But billions of dollars of investment are likely necessary to get Venezuela’s aging infrastructure in good-enough shape to ramp up production sharply.

It’s not just Venezuela where the U.S. military could see action, as Trump talks about “troubled and dangerous times.” The president in recent days has also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national security reasons and has suggested he’s open to carrying out military operations in Colombia.

In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly in Europe following a weak finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% for one of the world’s bigger moves, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.17% from 4.15% late Wednesday.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.