LOWELL — The suspected shooter reported to the Lowell Police Department to be “brandishing a firearm” on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell on Sept. 3 turned out to be a juvenile carrying an airsoft replica weapon.
The gun wasn’t real — but the lockdown was. So were the feelings of uneasiness and fear that some experienced. It was UMass Lowell’s first day of classes.
In the past few weeks, across the country, police have responded to calls claiming active shooters at 20 colleges and universities, including the University of New Hampshire, Kansas State and the University of Colorado Boulder among others, according to news reports.
The country also had another school shooting tragedy. On Aug. 27, a shooter in Minnesota killed two children and injured 21 others, most of them children, by shooting through the windows of a Catholic church while students were praying.
Graduate student Fahad Alden was on campus at UMass Lowell on Sept. 3 working as a graduate assistant. He opened his email and saw a university alert. He lives in the Riverview Suites on the South Campus, so he knew exactly where the suspected shooter was spotted.
“Your mind just goes to this dark, ‘What if?’” Alden said. “‘What if my friends were taking a walk?’” He saw the images online and remembers thinking, “it looked like an assault rifle from those pictures and he was waving it around.”
During the lockdown, Alden said his co-workers were calm and that “kind of rubbed off on me.” Their office is located at University Crossing on a higher floor, and it was not as close to where the suspected shooter was seen. They checked periodically for updates and news. They moved away from the windows.
“You can take everyday safety for granted until it’s threatened,” Alden said.
As a toddler, Alden lived in Iraq and Syria. His parents lived through war. Alden remembers a couple of times when, as a young child, one moment the family was laughing and talking, and then they heard something and moved to the basement for their safety. Then, his family moved to the United States.
He said what happened at UMass Lowell last week wasn’t the same as experiencing a war, but it did bring up some of those feelings for him, Alden said.
Alden is working toward his graduate degree in higher education administration and knowing that these types of events could continue to happen, does make him think about the future. During the summers, Alden teaches elementary-age children at a local arts center nonprofit.
“It’s just a dangerous thing that we have to think about it,” Alden said. “It’s become so normalized now and we see it on the news. I think years ago, it used to be like, ‘OK, this would happen once in a blue moon,’ but now it’s,” Alden takes a quick breath and pauses, adding, “That’s terrifying and really repulsive in a lot of ways.”
Mina Lam, a UMass Lowell alumna who graduated in spring 2025, was near East Campus at UMass Lowell and about to head to South Campus, where the shooter was seen. She had planned to meet up with her friend, Alden. She then started receiving texts, both from the university, because she is still involved with some programs, and from friends.
Lam said what happened hit her because she had earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at UMass Lowell and feels very connected to the university community.
“It was kind of scary. It was very chaotic with everything,” Lam said. “But, I’m glad, at least, they were able to take measures and get a lockdown.” As she watched everything unfold online, she also thought about how she used to be a resident advisor and how difficult it would to be in the dorms that day.
She was relieved to hear that it was not a real shooter, but, added, “It’s just hard to shake it off….it just all felt real in that moment.”
According to a university representative, since the suspected shooter incident, UMass Lowell has offered a range of mental health resources from group calls to individual counseling sessions to emergency counseling to visits with therapy dogs.
“Hundreds of members of the campus community — students, faculty and staff — have taken advantage of these services over the past week,” the representative said, adding, “The university continues to offer mental health resources to students as well as employees.”
Lowell police have not released any more information regarding the juvenile found to have had the airsoft replica weapon.
Both Lam and Alden said they have showed support to friends through reaching out, and Lam said she posted numbers for university mental health resources online.
Alden said he feels UMass Lowell’s campus is safe, but also said there are certain areas of downtown Lowell that are not the safest, like most cities. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Lowell.
“A lot of people were struggling with a lot of different emotions after this,” Alden said. “Just a quick text, a quick check-in, can turn someone’s day around. So that’s something that I got out of it… having this done to me was helpful, so maybe this is something that I can practice in my life.”
