Authorities are asking students who were at the scene when a gunman opened fire in a classroom at Brown University to help identify a masked man they believe to be of interest in the shooting that killed two students and injured nine others.
As the search for the gunman stretched into its fourth day on Tuesday, Providence police urged students who were in the engineering building the day before and the day after the shooting to contact them.
“Even an incidental detail may be helpful in investigating,” the police department said in a post on X.
New surveillance photos and videos released by officials Monday evening depict a man pacing a few blocks from the Brown University campus hours before the attack took place Saturday. The new imagery is the first to show the face of the person of interest seen in two previous video releases, authorities said.
Police released another photo of the suspect Tuesday afternoon. The suspect is wearing a black crossbody bag and walking with their hands in their pockets in the photo.
“We’re at the 49th hour, and there’s no one that wants to put this individual in handcuffs more than us, so this has brought us to a new lead,” Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said when the footage was released Monday evening.
As of Tuesday, authorities said they had not identified a motive for the shooter, nor had they recovered a weapon.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said officials are searching for evidence that could determine whether the shooter disposed of the weapon along their escape route.
“We have a good picture of the gunman’s route, but it’s not complete yet,” Neronha told MS NOW.
The FBI announced a $50,000 reward Monday for any information that leads to the identification and arrest of the shooter, who a special agent in charge of the bureau’s Boston field office said is “armed and dangerous” during the news conference.
Students are expressing concern over campus safety protocol and the length of the investigation in the days since the shooting.
Justin Kuo, a student who sheltered in place on campus for roughly six hours, said Sunday that while authorities “did the best that they could with the time given,” there needs to be more protective measures implemented.
“There absolutely needs to be a look into the policies in place. I mean, we didn’t get a text at Brown until 10 to 15 minutes after the event,” Kuo told MS NOW.
Kerem Pele, a Brown University junior, spoke with MS NOW shortly after visiting a student at the hospital who had been injured during the shooting. Pele did not name the student.
“This has just made me feel a lot of, a lot of fear, but also a lot of anger at the situation,” Pele said. “It’s not just a single incident. It’s not just a single tragedy. This is a part of a larger systemic problem in our country, and I think that this, if anything else, is forcing people to reckon with that fact.”
The shooting took place Saturday inside a first-floor classroom in Brown’s Barus & Holley, an engineering and physics building, authorities said. They said police were alerted to the gunshots at 4:05 p.m. on Saturday.
All the victims of the shooting were students at the university, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson. Ella Cook, 19, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, of Midlothian, Virginia, were killed.
Nine others were treated for gunshot wounds at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. As of Monday evening, six remained in critical but stable condition, one was in critical condition and one was discharged, according to a spokesperson for the hospital.
“These were two young people whose amazing promise was extinguished too soon. Both were at or near the beginning of their Brown journey. Actually, they were at the beginning of a lot of things,” Paxson said in a statement Tuesday, adding, “It is impossible for words to fully convey Ella’s and Mukhammad’s impact and potential.” Paxson said the university will not release the names of the injured out of concern for privacy. She said the university is planning a memorial service for the slain students that will take place after winter break. A virtual interfaith prayer service is scheduled for Wednesday. Police were going door to door Monday afternoon requesting available camera footage from businesses and residences near Brown University, while a large presence of FBI officers had amassed outside the university building where the shooting took place. Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the FBI Boston field office, said Monday that the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, is documenting the trajectories of the bullets shot Saturday to “reconstruct the scene.” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told residents Monday that there is no active or ongoing threat to the community. Authorities detained a person of interest early Sunday morning, but the man was released after a review of evidence showed “no basis to consider him a person of interest,” Smiley said. “Frankly, you know, there were some who got over their skis on that,” Neronha said of the detainment in an interview with MS NOW on Tuesday. “I’m confident it wasn’t the career people, people who have a lot of prosecutorial and law enforcement expertise.” FBI Director Kash Patel was quick to credit the FBI for providing the cellular tracking technology that led to the apprehension of the incorrect person of interest in a post on X on Sunday. Patel has since been criticized for the post, which some say was misleading. Asked about public frustration over the release of information in the case and concerns of friction between local and federal authorities handling the case, Neronha said he’s “not paying a lot of attention” to Patel’s comments. He said reports of friction stemmed from frustration that the first person taken into custody was not deemed responsible for the attack. “We have to be careful with the words that we use and not overpromise and underdeliver and be realistic with the public,” Neronha said.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
