Brown University shooting: Everything we know about the campus attack that left 2 dead and 9 injured
A person of interest was released and the manhunt continues for gunman who opened fire in Ivy League classroom
Two students were killed and at least nine others were injured after a gunman fired into a classroom at a prestigious Ivy League university in Rhode Island.
Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University in Providence forced campus buildings and parts of the city into lockdown, with students barricading themselves in buildings for hours while hundreds of law enforcement officers swarmed the city.
The suspect escaped before police arrived and — except for one brief surveillance video showing a person dressed in black rounding a corner outside the campus — all but disappeared.
A “person of interest” was detained in the early morning hours Sunday, but officials said he was released late that night.
Here is everything we know.
Campus building attacked while exams in progress
More than 400 law enforcement officers — many from surrounding communities and some from the federal government — descended on the city on Saturday, December 13, to join the manhunt while others cleared university buildings and evacuated students.
Officials ordered residents to shelter in place as sirens flashed throughout the neighborhood. Students hid under desks, while a bride and groom were forced to shelter at their wedding venue, according to WPRI.
A gunman fired into a final exam review session for an economics class, according to professor Rachel Friedberg. The classroom was located on the ground floor of an engineering building on campus, and according to officials, it appears that no other classrooms or buildings were targeted.
Manhunt ends with arrest of ‘person of interest’ — and continues hours later
Police said on Sunday morning that a “person of interest” was detained at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, early Sunday morning.
“The people of Providence should breathe a little easier this morning,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said at a Sunday press conference.
CNN journalists happened to be staying in the same hotel and witnessed at least 20 police officers, U.S. Marshals and FBI agents entering a room there.
Hotel guests were woken around 4 a.m. ET with police banging on a door, saying, “Open up,” according to the network.
Officers could be heard in the hallway saying, “We have a warrant for your apartment,” and that the suspect was being taken “back to the cruiser,” CNN reported.
But in a hastily announced press conference late Sunday night, officials announced that the person was being released.
Law enforcement officials said “evidence now points in a different direction.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters Sunday that “sometimes you head in one direction, and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so.”
“Obviously we have a murderer out there, frankly, and so we’re not going to give away the game plan,” he said.
Who is the ‘person of interest’?
Officials have described the person detained as a male in his 20s, correcting earlier reports that a gunman was in his late 30s.
The person taken into custody was not identified by officials and was not charged with any crimes.
Officials have not said if the person had any direct connection to the university.
A motive for the attack also has not been publicly disclosed.
Providence Police Department Chief Col. Oscar Perez stated that they were not seeking any additional suspects in the case.
In a video released late Saturday night, a suspect can be seen dressed in all black walking away from the engineering building and turning a corner before disappearing off-frame. There is no gun in the photo, and the shooter's face is not visible.
“We know there is no clear shot of the face,” Mayor Smiley said at the time of the video’s release.
Law enforcement and local officials asked residents in the area to check their doorbell and exterior cameras for any sign of the shooter, or to call in any tips, no matter how small.
Students describe harrowing attack
Spencer Yang told the Brown Daily Herald he was shot in the leg after the gunman entered the ECON0110 “Principles of Economics” final exam review session.
“Just as we’re … getting ready to leave, we hear gunshots,” Yang said. “So everyone kind of scrambles to try to get to the front of the class and hide.”“I didn’t make it all the way to the front, so I kind of (lay) between some seats,” he said. “Then the shooter came in, started shooting — I got hit in the leg.”
Max McCord, a Brown University junior, told The Washington Post that his girlfriend — another student at the school — told him her brother had been shot through his thigh.
She called him at 4:15 p.m. ET to tell him about her brother’s injury, he said. The student said her brother had been studying in the engineering building when the suspect began shooting.
McCord, who is from Pittsburgh, said his girlfriend’s brother was in the hospital but was recovering well.
He said that while he was talking to his girlfriend, his roommate burst into their room, winded, after running when he heard gunshots.
The young men were in lockdown for hours after the shooting.
Across Providence, the Providence Place Mall shut its doors early, as did some nearby nightclubs and bars. Police gathered outside the AMP music venue to protect a Goose rock concert, and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, who are set to play the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon, were forced to shelter in a downtown hotel.
Back at Brown, two students had to relive some of the most horrific events they had ever experienced.
Mia Tretta, a junior at Brown University, was wounded in a school shooting at her high school in Santa Clarita, California, in 2019, she told NBC News.
She was on campus when she received a flood of text messages and alerts about an active shooter on campus.
“No one in this country even assumes it’s going to happen to them," she told the outlet. “Once it happens to you, you assume or are told it will never happen again. And obviously that is not the case.”
She said her community at Brown is “in shambles” after the attack.
Zoe Weissman, 20, is a sophomore at Brown University. She survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and another 18 were injured.
She told MS NOW that she is “really angry that this is happening to me all over again.”
“And I’m just in shock,” she said.
After she survived the 2019 attack, “I have not been the same person I was that day ever again, and I assume it won't be any different for the students at Brown,” she said.
There have been at least 154 incidents of gunfire at schools in the United States so far this year, according to gun safety advocacy group Everytown. At least 49 people have been killed and 135 injured in the attacks.
“Students on college campuses should be preparing for final exams and winter break — not enduring yet another all too familiar tragedy caused by gun violence,” Everytown president John Feinblatt said in a statement. “While we await details, one thing is clear: today’s shooting at Brown University is another unacceptable reminder of our nation’s gun violence crisis. We either take action, or we bury more of our kids."