Rachel Caruso was on a police-ride along when a call came in that shots had been fired at Brown University on Saturday, Dec. 13
Thayer Street quiet after mass shooting on Brown University campus
One Thayer Street neighbor describes how the mass shooting at Brown University has silenced the normally busy street.
It was a normal police ride-along shift on Saturday, Dec. 13, remembers Rachel Caruso.
Since 2004 Family Service of Rhode Island has embedded licensed social workers like Caruso into police patrols to respond to crime scenes to mitigate trauma exposure. They provide mental health support to survivors of domestic abuse, homicide incidents, sexual assaults and other violent events.
That night Caruso and the officer she was patrolling with had actually been on Christmas duty: collecting gifts other police districts had donated for families in need. Their ride-along, however, was interrupted when a message buzzed through the radio.
“That is when the call came in for shots fired on the dispatch,” Caruso remembers.
They made their way to the site of the shooting, which Caruso soon would learn was the Barus & Holley engineering building at Brown University.
Protocol required Caruso to remain in the patrol vehicle until police gave the all clear. But that didn’t mean Caruso sat idly: she immediately called her supervisor, who started coordinating for a trauma response team to deploy to the university as soon as police allowed.
“Being in the patrol cars and being able to respond so quickly is one of the things that makes this program work,” Caruso said. “And in this moment, it certainly was one of the things that helped us activate so quickly.”
Once the all clear was given, Caruso was escorted inside the athletic facility that was designated as a reunification space for students and families. She would later be joined by 20 mental health professionals who responded to the shooting.
“We really focused on providing a calm presence for the students and the families who were there, answering questions as best we could,” Caruso said. “I think there was a lot of answers that we wanted to give and couldn’t because we just weren’t there yet. So it was really just a lot about keeping everyone as calm as we could and providing any support that they needed.”
Caruso, like other responders who worked that night, is coping with the events of that day. But she finds comfort in being a part of a multi-agency team who cares for people in times of crisis.
“As someone who has responded to some horrible things, I find a lot peace in what I have been able to do,” she said.
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