Topline
Police have detained a man believed to be in his 20s as a person of interest in the deadly mass shooting on Brown University’s campus on Saturday that left two dead, ending an overnight shelter in place order hours after a shooter opened fire at the Rhode Island college.
Law enforcement officers on Brown University’s campus hours after the deadly shooting.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reservedKey Facts
At a Sunday morning press conference, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced a person of interest was in custody and the shelter in place order was lifted.
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said he could only provide “limited” information about the person of interest so far, who he said was detained “earlier this morning.”
Earlier, a deputy police chief described the person of interest as a male, possibly in his 30s, and possibly wearing a mask, Reuters reported, but at a later press conference Perez said he was “actually a person in his 20s.”
Perez would not say where the person of interest was detained, or whether they were affiliated with Brown.
Two handguns have since been recovered, as well as two loaded 30-round magazines, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press, who also said the shooter fired off 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun in the classroom.
Smiley also said that seven of the nine victims were now in stable condition, while another was in “critical but stable” condition and another already discharged.
Brown cancelled all classes, final exams, papers and projects for the rest of the semester, Provost Francis J. Doyle III announced in a message on Sunday morning.
Officials did not provide an update on the ongoing investigation at another press conference at noon on Sunday, but Perez said “the investigation continues to progress extremely fast.”
In an update on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency used geolocation tools, along with a lead from Providence police, that led to the detaining of the man at a hotel in Coventry, R.I.
President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the victims’ families later on Sunday, in short remarks that also mentioned the victims of the antisemitic mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, and the American soldiers killed in an attack on a base in Syria.
Key Background
Around 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire in a classroom on Brown’s campus in Providence, Rhode Island, killing two victims and injuring another nine people. Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed the shooting took place in a classroom where a final exam review for a principles of economics class was taking place. A shelter in place order was issued for the area around the campus in the immediate aftermath. Few details were immediately released about the suspect, and police only shared grainy security camera footage of a person of interest dressed in all black clothing.
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