PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A gunman dressed in black killed at least two people and injured nine others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus in Rhode Island, authorities said, and police continued to hunt for the suspect.
University President Christina Paxson said she was told that all 10 people who were shot were students. Authorities had initially reported eight wounded, but they said in an update Saturday night that another person was injured by fragments from the shooting.
Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes in Providence, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches hours after the shooting erupted in the afternoon.
The suspect is a male who was wearing dark clothing and was last seen leaving the building, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of police in Providence.
Some witnesses told police that the suspect, who they said could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, O’Hara said.
Investigators were not yet sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom. Outer doors of the building were unlocked, but rooms being used for final exams require badge access, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. Last spring the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed an assault weapons ban that will prohibit the sale and manufacturing of certain high-powered firearms, but not their possession, starting next July.
“The unthinkable has happened,” Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said.
Smiley said a shelter-in-place order was in effect for the area and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside and not to return home until it is lifted. Streets that normally bustle with activity on weekends were eerily quiet.
“We have all available resources” to find the suspect, the mayor said.
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the engineering building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side.
Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building, where she waited for a couple of hours.
Eight people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where six were in critical but stable condition, according to Kelly Brennan, a spokesperson for the hospital. Another was in critical condition and one was stable, she said.
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, before later saying that was not the case. The mayor said a person initially thought to be connected to the attack was detained but was later determined to have no involvement.
Emergency personnel gather on Waterman Street at Brown University on Saturday.
(Mark Stockwell / Associated Press)
Nearly five hours after the shooting, officers in tactical gear led students out of campus buildings and into a fitness center.
The shooting occurred near the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story structure that houses the School of Engineering and physics department, according to the school’s website. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices.
Engineering design exams were underway in the building when the shooting occurred.
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4 p.m.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as half a dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm. He said he feared for a friend who he thought was inside the engineering building at the time.
Students in a nearby lab hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.
Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.
“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.
President Trump told reporters that he had been briefed on the shooting and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims.”
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. Tuition, housing and other fees run to nearly $100,000 per year, according to the university.
Kruesi, McDermott and Durkin Richer write for the Associated Press. Kruesi and McDermott reported from Providence and Durkin Richer from Washington. AP journalists Mike Balsamo and Seung Min Kim in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D.; Martha Bellisle in Seattle and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.