Police hold person of interest after Brown University shooting left 2 dead
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PROVIDENCE – US police said early on Dec 14 that they have taken a person of interest into custody in connection with the shooting at Brown University the day before, which left two students dead and another nine people wounded.
Providence’s chief public information officer for public safety Kristy DosReis said a person of interest was in police custody after the shooting at the university in the city.
The man had a unique characteristic on his firearm, and that firearm was found when he was taken into custody, NBC reported.
Brown University said the shelter-in-place order on its Rhode Island campus was lifted early on Dec 14, although police remained at the location and still considered it an active crime scene.
More than 400 law enforcement officers were deployed on Dec 13 as the authorities searched for the suspect in the shooting.
Access to parts of the campus remained restricted on Dec 14 as police maintained a security perimeter around Minden Hall and nearby apartment buildings, said Brown University.
The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.
Streets around the campus had been packed with emergency vehicles, and security was heightened around the city on Dec 13.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working with local and state police.
Officials released a video of a suspect, a male possibly in his 30s and dressed in black. Providence deputy police chief Timothy O’Hara said on Dec 13 the individual may have worn a mask, but officials were not certain.
In the brief clip, the person, whose face is not visible, is dressed in dark, loose-fitting pants and jacket, and wearing a knit cap.
Investigators retrieved shell casings from the scene, but police were not prepared to release details.
Officials said the gunman escaped after shooting students in Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, where outer doors had been unlocked while exams were taking place.
Detectives were looking into why that location was targeted, Providence police chief Oscar Perez told reporters at a news conference.
Brown University president Christina Paxson said she was informed that the two who died and at least eight of those injured were students.
Conditions of the injured vary from stable to critical, according to Ms Kelly Brennan, senior public relations officer at Rhode Island Hospital. The ninth victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to make a full recovery.
Brown University is in College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island’s state capital.
The Ivy League school has about 11,000 students.
“This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has,” Dr Paxson told reporters.
The shooting took place at the Barus and Holley building, home to the engineering and physics departments, on the campus of Brown University.
PHOTO: AFP
Brown University police chief Rodney Chatman described the shooting investigation as “a very fluid situation” that was continuing to evolve.
Law enforcement described the suspect as a man dressed all in black.
PHOTO: AFP
Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news station WPRI reporting clothing and blood on the pavement.
The FBI was providing “all capabilities necessary”, director Kash Patel said on X.
Federal law enforcement and the police from surrounding cities and towns were assisting in the search, officials said. According to local news reports, venues across the city were bringing in extra security.
Federal law enforcement and the police from surrounding cities and towns were assisting in the search.
PHOTO: AFP
Ms Katie Sun told The Brown Daily Herald student newspaper that she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dorm, leaving all her belongings behind.
“It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from... where the classrooms are,” she said.
Student Chiang-Heng Chien told local TV station WJAR he was working in a lab with three other students when he saw the text about the active shooter situation a block away.
They waited under desks for about two hours, he said.
ABC News reported that the incident took place during the second day of final exams for the autumn semester, a week before winter break.
In an alert to the campus shortly after 4.15pm, the school instructed students and faculty to lock doors, silence phones and hide until further notice, The New York Times reported.
It also said that a second university alert shortly before 5pm said a suspect was in custody, but the university later reversed and said that no one had been apprehended.
“As a last resort, take action to protect yourself,” the school wrote in its initial alert in the late afternoon on Dec 13.
“My heart breaks for the students who were looking forward to a holiday break and instead are dealing with another horrifying mass shooting,” Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse posted on X.
US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting.
“What a terrible thing it is,” he said. “All we can do right now is pray for the victims.”
The shooting is the latest in a long line of school attacks in the US, where attempts to restrict easy access to firearms face political deadlock. REUTERS, AFP
