The Brown University mass shooting is raising questions about how an Ivy League college with an $8 billion endowment has no security cameras in the area where two students were killed and eight wounded — or any near where the gunman went.
The failure to capture the gunman after five days has resulted in New England on edge — and critics growing louder about the security and investigative failures by leaders of both Brown and the Providence, Rhode Island, Police Department.
Even President Trump has started to raise questions: “Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!” he posted on Truth Social.
Brown University’s Barus & Holley building, the site of Saturday’s deadly mass shooting, has limited surveillance cameras on the side of the building that has yet to be renovated. REUTERS
Since the shooting on Saturday, Providence cops and the FBI have released numerous grainy captures from doorbell cameras in the area showing the “person of interest” in the case, and have fielded over 200 “actionable” tips, but so far no concrete identifying information has been released.
State Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters Wednesday that authorities have “zero” information regarding a potential motive in the killings.
Authorities described the suspect as a man with a stocky build standing approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall. In the footage released by authorities he’s seen wearing a black hat, medical mask, dark pants and a two-tone winter jacket.
Brown University has numerous security cameras around its sprawling 145-acre campus. REUTERS
Brown University’s Providence campus has around 1,200 security cameras, according to president Christina Paxson, but the Barus & Holley building, which was completed in 1965, only has cameras at the front part of the building, which was renovated around five years ago, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters Tuesday.
“So, there’s the back part of the building, the old part, and the front part, the new part,” Neronha said.
“The shooting occurs in the old part towards the back … and that older part of the building, there are fewer, if any, cameras in that location, I imagine, because it’s an older building.”
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The 220,000 square-foot, seven-story building houses the School of Engineering and the Physics Department. It includes 117 laboratories, 150 offices, 15 classrooms, 29 laboratory classrooms and 3 lecture halls, according to the university’s website.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday night that the university has “no wall” and “no gates,” which differentiates it from many other schools.
“The building is on the literal edge of the campus, and the person of interest walked out the door that, as soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, was no longer on campus,” he said. “This individual was off campus the minute he stepped out of that door and into a residential neighborhood.”
The official campus residence of the Brown University president, which predates the Barus & Holley building where the shooting took place by more than 40 years, appears to have several cameras installed. Google Maps
Brown campus security did not respond to an inquiry by The Post about the apparent gaps in camera coverage, or whether they plan to install additional cameras in the wake of the mass shooting, in which students Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, and Ella Cook, 19, were killed.
The Elizabeth Hazard Sturges House, which serves as the school president’s official residence, appears to have several security cameras installed despite being built in 1922 and sold to the University in 1947, the Brown Daily Herald writes.
The Providence Police Department said in response to an email from The Post that the shooting investigation “remains ongoing.”
“The Providence Police Department continues to work closely with our law enforcement partners, including the Rhode Island State Police, Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, FBI, ATF, IRS, DEA, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service,” a department spokesperson wrote.
“We encourage anyone with information related to this incident to contact the Providence Police Department tip line at 401-272-3121 or submit tips online at fbi.gov/brownuniversityshooting.”