Police release man and say they are still searching for suspect in Brown shooting

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island – The authorities in Rhode Island were searching for a gunman who killed two people and injured nine others
at Brown University, after a man who was earlier detained was released, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, announced at a news conference late on Dec 14.

Officials at the news conference said the investigation was continuing. They provided no details about the man who they released, who was taken into custody early on Dec 14 in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 32km from Brown’s campus in Providence.

They said the search for a suspect was ongoing.

The shooting occurred at around 4pm on Dec 13 during a final exam review for a Principles of Economics class.

Mr Joseph Oduro, 21, a teaching assistant, said he had been wrapping up the review session when a man with a face mask and a rifle burst into the classroom. The man shouted something that Mr Oduro could not make out and opened fire.

The man arrested earlier was described a “person of interest”.

Providence police chief Oscar Perez said at a midday news conference that the man was in his 20s but declined to share further details.

Other news media outlets, including the Washington Post and NBC News, cited unnamed sources identifying the man as military veteran Benjamin Erickson, 24, who previously resided in Wisconsin.

A person by the name of Benjamin W. Erickson served as a US Army infantryman from May 2021 to November 2024, leaving the service with the rank of specialist without ever being deployed, military officials told Reuters.

But they could not confirm whether he was the man detained over the Brown University shooting.

FBI director Kash Patel said in a post on social media platform X earlier on Dec 14 that the person of interest was detained in a hotel room in the Rhode Island town of Coventry, a 30-minute drive from the Brown campus.

The mass shooting – the latest of nearly 400 in the US in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive – shook the community at the university, one of the oldest in the United States.

The school cancelled exams and classes for the rest of the year
, and the campus was quiet on Dec 14 as a light snowfall blanketed the city.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said the authorities, as at midday on Dec 14, had not yet contacted all of the victims’ family members because some were travelling.

He invited residents to a previously planned event on Dec 14 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,” Mr Smiley said.

Authorities release video of suspect

Seven people injured at Brown University were in stable condition, Mr 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 Dec 14. Mr 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 and physics building, where outer doors had been left unlocked while exams were taking place, officials said on Dec 13.

The authorities on Dec 13 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 Dec 13 that 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.”

Students caught by surprise

Mr Ref Bari, 22, a graduate student at Brown, said he was inside the Barus & Holley building when he heard a series of loud popping sounds that appeared to be gunfire.

Mr Bari ran out of the building and asked another student running in the street if he could hide with her and her friends, and she agreed. They returned to her basement apartment and hid in the bathroom.

“She trusted me,” he said. “The only connection between us is we are both students at Brown, but beyond that, we do not know each other.”

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,” Mr Oduro said. “Who knows, if I did not duck, maybe I am not here today.”

A student next to him took two bullets to the leg and was due to undergo surgery on Dec 14, he said.

Mr Jack DiPrimio, another graduate student at Brown, said he was initially not concerned when the university went on lockdown because he had experienced many active-shooter drills.

The drills have become more common in the US as attacks targeting students have increased.

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

He added: “Maybe I was desensitised.” REUTERS