Police hold ‘person of interest’ after 2 dead in Brown University shooting

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REUTERS/TAYLOR COESTER

Flowers rest in front of the Barus & Holley engineering building the day after Brown University was locked down amid reports of a shooting on campus in Providence, Rhode Island.

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MARC VASCONCELLOS/USA TODAY NETWORK VIA REUTERS

Police respond to the shooting on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

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MARC VASCONCELLOS/USA TODAY NETWORK VIA REUTERS

Brown University students are escorted by police as they leave the building where the shooting occurred in Providence, Rhode Island.

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island >> Authorities detained a “person of interest” who was found in a Rhode Island hotel after the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine wounded at the Ivy League school as students took exams before winter break, authorities said on Sunday.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said at a midday news conference that the suspect was in his 20s, but declined to share other details, citing an ongoing investigation. Perez said earlier in the day that authorities were not seeking other suspects at this time.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the person of interest had been detained in a hotel room in the Rhode Island town of Coventry, a 30-minute drive from the Brown campus. An FBI team specializing in cellular data analysis used geolocation information to track the suspect, Patel said.

The mass shooting — the latest of nearly 400 in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive — shook the community at the university, one of the oldest in the United States. The school canceled exams and classes for the rest of the year and the campus was quiet on Sunday as a light snowfall blanketed the city.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said that authorities, as of midday on Sunday, had not yet contacted all family members because some were traveling. He invited residents to a previously planned event on Sunday to light a Christmas tree and a menorah to mark the first night of Hanukkah.

“It is quite clear that if we can come together as a community and shine a little bit of light tonight, I think there’s nothing better that we could be doing,” Smiley said.

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Authorities release video of suspect

Seven people injured at Brown University were in stable condition, Smiley said. One remained in critical but stable condition, while another had been discharged, he added.

Shelter-in-place orders at the university and nearby areas were lifted on Sunday. Smiley said earlier in the day that residents should expect a visible police presence across the city.

The gunman fled after shooting students in a classroom in Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, where outer doors had been unlocked while exams were taking place, officials said on Saturday.

Authorities on Saturday released a short video clip of a person of interest dressed in black walking near the engineering building. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said on Saturday the individual may have worn a mask, but officials were not certain.

Brown President Christina Paxson told reporters that all or nearly all of the victims were students, adding: “This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has.”

Under desks for hours

Teaching assistant Joseph Oduro, 21, told CNN he was in a classroom that was attacked.

“The first couple of gunshots went straight to the chalkboard right where I was standing,” Oduro said. “Who knows, if I didn’t duck, maybe I’m not here today.”

A student next to him took two bullets to the leg and was due to undergo surgery on Sunday, he said.

Brown 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.

Jack DiPrimio, a graduate student at Brown, said he was initially not concerned when the university went on lockdown because he had experienced many active shooter drills over his lifetime. The drills have become more common in the U.S. as attacks targeting students have increased.

“I had faced so many lockdowns in high school and even a few at my undergrad, so I wasn’t that worried at first,” DiPrimio said in a TikTok video after coming out of a five-hour lockdown. “Maybe I was desensitized.”

See more:America in TurmoilNational news

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