Police are continuing their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others on Saturday after a person of interest detained in connection with the attack was released.
Officials announced they had released a person of interest, explaining that the evidence “now points in a different direction” at a news conference late Sunday.
A man at a Rhode Island hotel had been detained on early Sunday. Hours later, Mayor Brett Smiley said investigators didn’t know if the gunman was still in the area.
“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety,” Smiley said.
“We have a murderer out there,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
“I’ve been around long enough to know 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,” Neronha said.
He said there was some evidence that pointed to the man authorities detained, but “that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”
The release of the person of interest left law enforcement without a known suspect, with officials pledging to redouble their efforts by asking neighbourhood residents and businesses for video surveillance that might help identify the attacker.
There is no immediate threat to Brown University or the local community, Brown University said in a statement on Sunday night.
Officials are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting, when hundreds of officers searched for the attacker and urged students and staff to remain indoors.
All remaining undergraduate, graduate and medical classes, exams and papers and projects for the fall 2025 semester will not take place as scheduled, Brown University president, Christina Paxson, announced.
“This choice was made out of our profound concern for all students, faculty and staff,” Paxson added.
“As Providence police continue to lead this investigation, they have informed Brown that they are continuing their search efforts, which includes ongoing coordination with multiple agencies. There continues to be a heightened amount of local, state and federal police activity in the area as law enforcement continues to investigate and patrol with increased vigilance. The Department of Public Safety has more than doubled its staffing,” the university added.
Paxson shared an update with students on the status of the shooting victims on Sunday, noting that many are in “stable” condition.
“Seven of the students are in critical but stable condition, but as I noted, one remains in critical condition. Our prayers continue to be with them and their families,” Paxson wrote. “As we shared last night, one student was discharged from the hospital last night and left with their parents. And of course, we continue to support the families of the two students who died. There are not enough words of comfort for families who lose a child, but we will do all we can.”
The suspect is described as a male wearing dark clothing. He was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of Providence police.
Authorities said Sunday they lacked video of the shooter as Brown University’s engineering building doesn’t have many cameras.
They believe they are looking for a person shown in a short clip of video footage walking away, the mayor said. The person’s back is to the camera.
“Right now, we don’t have any evidence to suggest that it was more than that individual, which has been seen in that video,” Smiley said on Monday on Good Morning America.
“To be clear, we’ve never stopped our investigation and Providence Police and our partners and State Police, the FBI and others have continuously run down leads and worked this case beyond the person of interest who had been detained yesterday,” Smiley added.
A gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building at Brown University on Saturday. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said a law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter entered the first-floor classroom in a seven-storey complex that houses the School of Engineering and the physics department.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been briefed and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims.”
— With files from The Associated Press