PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Officials in Providence say they will release a person of interest detained following a Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and other officials made the disclosure at a hastily convened news conference on Sunday night, more than 12 hours after revealing that they had detained a person in connection with the attack.
Mayor Brett Smiley speaks to reporters during a Brown University news conference Sunday in Providence, R.I.
The attack Saturday afternoon set off hours of chaos across the Ivy League campus and surrounding Providence neighborhoods as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter and urged students and staff to shelter in place. The lockdown, which stretched into the night, was lifted early Sunday, but authorities had not yet released information about a potential motive.
The person of interest was a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said Sunday afternoon that no one had been charged yet. Perez, who also said no one else was being sought, declined to say whether the detained person had any connection to Brown.
The person was taken into custody at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles from Providence, where police officers and FBI agents remained Sunday, blocking off a hallway with crime scene tape as they searched the area.
The shooting occurred during one of the busiest times of the academic calendar, as final exams were underway. Brown canceled all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects for the semester and told students they could leave campus, underscoring the scale of the disruption and the gravity of the attack.
As police scoured the area for the shooter, many students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
University President Christina Paxson teared up while describing her conversations with students both on campus and in the hospital.
“They are amazing and they’re supporting each other,” she said at a news conference. “There’s just a lot of gratitude.”
A police vehicle is parked at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University on Sunday in Providence, R.I., following a shooting Saturday at the university.
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told AP. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, the official said. One of the firearms was equipped with a laser sight that projects a dot to aid in targeting, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
One student of the nine wounded students had been released from the hospital, said Paxson. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
On December 13, chaos erupted at Brown University in Providence when an active shooter opened fire inside the Barus & Holley building duri…
Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was critically wounded. The school said her parents were with her.
“Our school community is rallying around Kendall, her classmates, and her loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days ahead,” the school said.
On Sunday evening, city leaders, residents and others gathered at a park to honor the victims. The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.
“For those who know at least bit of the Hanukkah story, it is quite clear that if we can come together as a community to shine a little bit of light tonight, there’s nothing better that we can be doing,” Mayor Brett Smiley said at a news conference earlier in the day.
Smiley said he visited some wounded students and was inspired by their courage, hope and gratitude. One told him that active shooting drills done in high school proved helpful.
“The resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me, is frankly pretty overwhelming,” he said.
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom at the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. The building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices, according to the university’s website.
Engineering design exams were underway. Outer doors of the building were unlocked but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Smiley said.
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops. Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and into a nearby building where she waited for hours.
Surveillance video released by police showed a suspect, dressed in black, walking from the scene.
Eva Erickson, a doctoral candidate who was the runner-up earlier this year on the CBS reality competition show “Survivor,” said she left her lab in the engineering building 15 minutes before shots rang out.
The engineering and thermal science student shared candid moments on “Survivor” as the show’s first openly autistic contestant. She was locked down in the campus gym following the shooting and shared on social media that the only other member of her lab who was present was safely evacuated.
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as officers surrounded his dorm.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students.
A list of deadly shootings on college campuses in the US
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, are stationed outside of Florida State University’s student union building April 17, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla., after a shooting. Two people were killed and at least six others were wounded. The gun used in the shooting belonged to the 20-year-old suspect's mother, who has worked for the sheriff’s office for 18 years, authorities said. They described the gun as her former service weapon. Experts say mass shootings on college campuses, though rare, are often on the minds of students today because they grew up participating in active shooter drills in elementary and high school. Here is a look at other deadly shootings on U.S. college campuses in recent decades.
Michigan State University students embrace Feb. 14, 2023, at The Rock on the East Lansing, Mich., campus. A fired inside an academic building and the student union, killing three students and injuring five others. He later killed himself miles away from the campus while being confronted by police. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at .
Amanda Perez, left, is comforted Dec. 6, 2023, by fellow student Alejandro Barron after a shooting on the University of Nevada campus in Las Vegas. A 67-year-old , whose applications to teach at UNLV were rejected, opened fire in the building housing the university's business school, killing three professors and badly wounding a fourth. The gunman was killed in a shootout with police outside the building.
A University of Virginia football player speaks Nov. 19, 2022, during a memorial service for three slain University of Virginia football players Lavel Davis Jr., D'Sean Perry and Devin Chandler at John Paul Jones Arena at the school in Charlottesville, Va. A of the school’s football team shot and killed the players on a charter bus as they returned from a field trip, setting off panic and a 12-hour lockdown of the campus until the suspect was captured. Two other students also were wounded on the campus. The shooter pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges.
Authorities gather Oct. 9, 2015, outside a student dormitory in Flagstaff, Ariz., after an early morning fight between two groups of college students escalated into gunfire, authorities said. Just weeks into his freshman year, a student walked onto the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff and opened fire. One student was killed and three others wounded. The to manslaughter and aggravated assault and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Hannah Miles, a student at , speaks with reporters Oct. 1, 2015, in Roseburg, Ore. A 26-year-old man opened fire on his writing class, killing his instructor and eight other people at the school, then killed himself. Miles said she was in the classroom next door to the shooting, which also wounded nine others.
A woman looks at bullet holes May 24, 2014, in a window of IV Deli Mark, where a near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, in the Isla Vista beach community. A 22-year-old college student frustrated over sexual rejections fatally stabbed or shot six students near the school and injured several others before he killed himself.
Santa Monica College students Gaby Contreras, left, and Andrea Garcia leave flowers at a memorial for those killed in a shooting at the school in Santa Monica, Calif. A deadly act of domestic violence at home turned public June 7, 2013, when a left after killing his father and older brother, carjacked a woman and shot at other vehicles. He then entered the campus, where he previously was enrolled as a student, and opened fire, killing four more people before he was fatally shot by police in the school's library.
Maria Campomanes and her daughter Maelauni leave flowers for victims outside of Oikos University in Oakland, Calif. A fatally shot seven people April 2, 2012, at the small private college in East Oakland, California. He was given seven consecutive life sentences and died in prison in 2019.
Mourners console each other after placing flowers at a memorial at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. A 27-year-old former student shot and and wounded more than 20 others at the school Feb. 14, 2008, before killing himself.
Students gather on the campus of Virginia Tech for a candlelight vigil April 17, 2007, a day after a shooting, in Blacksburg, Va. In the , a 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus. More than two dozen others were wounded. The gunman then killed himself.
Smoke rises from a sniper's gun Aug. 1, 1966, as he fires at people from the tower of the University of Texas administration building in Austin, Texas. A Marine-trained sniper opened fire from atop the 27-story clock tower in the heart of the university's flagship campus in . He killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others before authorities shot and killed him.
