Person of interest detained after Brown University shooting
Police in Rhode Island said early Sunday that they had a person of interest in custody after a shooting that rocked the Brown University campus during final exams, leaving two people dead and nine others wounded.
Col Oscar Perez, chief of the Providence police, confirmed at a news conference that the detained person was in their 30s. Perez did not say where they were arrested or whether theywere connected to the university.
The shooting erupted in the engineering building of the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, during final exams. Hundreds of police officers had scoured the Brown University campus along with nearby neighborhoods and pored over video in pursuit of a shooter who opened fire in a classroom.
Providence leaders warned that residents will notice a heavier police presence on Sunday. Many local businesses announced they would remain closed and expressed shock and heartbreak as the community continued to process the news of the shooting.
“Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson said at the news conference.
Key events
Oscar Perez refused to say whether the person in custody is the same person as the one seen in surveillance footage released on Saturday night.
Perez declined to comment on whether officials had found the gun used in the attack.
Col Oscar Perez was asked whether officials had been able to establish any connection between the suspects and the university or find out why the suspect targeted the university.
Perez said: “So that’s all part of the investigation that we’re conducting. And again, it’s, it’s complex.”
Providence police chief declines to name any suspect
Police chief Col Oscar Perez addresses reporters and says he is aware of speculation around a suspect’s name. He says he is not ready to provide a name or names.
He told reporters the “investigation continues to progress extremely fast” He added: We’re in the process of collecting evidence and seizing items that we need to seize such location that we need to search.”
Mayor Smiley went on to say he visited victims of the attack and their families in hospital on Sunday.
He thanked the medical staff at Brown Health and Rhode Island Hospital, saying: “These folks, just like our law enforcement professionals, have been up all night working. But the level of care and professionalism that they’re exhibiting is extraordinary.
“These survivors received an excellent care. And the resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me is, frankly, pretty overwhelming. It pales in comparison what they’ve gone through for the rest of us here. We’re all saddened and scared and tired.
“But what they’ve been through something entirely different. And yet they showed courage and hope and gratitude for how this community has stood up for them, and how the health care providers care for them.”
Brett Smiley says the community would now turn “our attention to caring for our neighbors”.
He pointed to a website set up by the city of Providence where the community find resources for mental health care.
He said a vigil would be held at 5pm ET at Olympic Park, where there had been plans to light a Christmas tree and to light a menorah for the first night of Hanukkah.
He said: “And for those who know at least a little bit of a Hanukkah story, it is quite clear that if we can come together as a community and shine a little bit of light, if there’s nothing better that we could be doing this community.”
Providence mayor Brett Smiley begins the press conference. He starts by praising the level of collaboration between law enforcement agencies.
He says there is no update to share on the investigation, that the investigation is ongoing and that officials are cooperating with law enforcement agencies.
He said he would not share any information that could jeopardize the investigation or compromise any future charges.
The person in custody after the Brown University shooting had two firearms with them when they were detained, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN.
The exact type of firearms remains unclear.
Officials are expected to hold a press conference at 12pm ET. We will bring you the latest from that update as we get it.
Students in a nearby lab turned off the lights and hid under desks after receiving an alert, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about from where the shooting occurred.
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 told AP.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the US, is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students.
Students describe experiences of Brown University shooting
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 said 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 armed officers surrounded his dorm.
Rhode Island senator says attack ‘shook the entire state’
The Democratic senator for Rhode Island, Jack Reed, has been on Fox News this morning, describing how the attack “shook the entire state”.
Reed hailed law enforcement agencies for detaining a person of interest within 12 hours of the attack that killed two people. He said: “But it still doesn’t diminish the real horror and the pain that this caused to everyone in this state.”
Senator Chris Murphy criticized the Trump administration for failing to protect Americans from gun crime, accusing the US president of being engaged “in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country”.
Since coming back into office, Donald Trump has dismantled the White House office of gun violence prevention, and directed Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to review federal gun laws to weed out any “ongoing infringements” of the second amendment.
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In March, his administration removed an advisory from Vivek Murthy, the former surgeon general, on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Services website. The next month, the justice department cut more than $800m in grants, including community-based violence intervention programs, that were managed by the justice department’s office of justice programs (OJP). While big asks from gun rights organizations have gone unanswered, behind the scenes, Trump’s Department of Justice has also proven to be largely gun-friendly.
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In April, the justice department nixed a Biden-era “zero-tolerance” policy for gun dealers who willfully failed to follow federal guidelines.
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In May, the department reversed a years-long precedent that prohibited the sale of devices called forced reset triggers that can be affixed to rifles and allowed to fire rapidly. Before the DoJ’s recent intervention, the items were classified as machine guns.
Speaking to CNN, Murphy said: “He’s knowingly restoring gun rights to dangerous people. He is cutting off grants that have bipartisan support to try to interrupt violence in our cities or to try to get necessary mental health resources to families and children in need.
“The evidence tells you that, when you stop funding mental health, when you stop funding community anti-gun violence programs, when you give gun rights back to dangerous people, you are going to have an increase in violence. That is knowable and that is foreseeable.”
The deadly attack in Providence came on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting that left 26 people dead.
Democratic Connecticut senator Chris Murphy – who was elected just weeks before that horrific attack – told CNN he was mourning for the people killed at Brown University and expressed his hope that those who were wounded would recover from their injuries.
Speaking on the anniversary of Sandy Hook, Murphy said the parents of the victims would “relive the horror of that day”, adding that “a community never, ever recovers from a shooting like this. And the trauma and the cost is not just in the lives lost.”
Condemning the frequency of mass shootings in the United States, Murphy also said:
Those kids who are returning to campus are going to be looking over their shoulder, wondering whether they are going to survive their next day in class, as kids all across America do every single day that they show up in their classroom, wondering whether they someday are going to have to flee for their lives.
We think maybe at least two of the kids at this shooting had already survived a previous shooting when they were in elementary and secondary school. That is just not a reality that we should accept in this nation for our kids.
Officials have not yet found the gun
Armed with a handgun, the shooter fired more than 40 9 mm rounds, according to a law enforcement official.
Authorities as of Sunday morning had not recovered a gun but did find two loaded 30-round magazines, thr official told AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
Person of interest was detained at a hotel near Providence, FBI says
The FBI has now said the person of interested was taken into custody at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, about 20 miles (32km) from Providence.
Officers remained on the scene there, with police tape blocking off a hallway, the Associated Press reports.
An image from the hotel show officers cordoning off a hallway:
Seven students in critical but stable condition; one student in critical condition
Brown University president Christina Paxson gave an update on the condition of the students injured in the attack.
She said seven of the students remained in critical but stable condition. One student remains in critical condition. She added: “Our prayers continue to be with them and their families.”
One student was discharged from the hospital last night and left with their parents. She added: “And of course, we continue to support the families of the two students who died. There are not enough words of comfort for families who lose a child, but we will do all we can.”
Paxson also announced there would be support offices set up across campus for those affected by the shooting.
She said: “We know that the stress of this situation will live with our community for hours and days and weeks to come. We will find ways to be in community with each other.”
Brown University’s president paid tribute to students who opened their homes to fellow students who were evacuated from locked down areas of the campus overnight.
Christina Paxson said any students who were taken to an evacuation site have been relocated and have received food and a place to sleep. She said: “I am deeply moved by all the students who opened their homes and their arms to welcome friends into their dorms and other residences while we transported others to local hotels.”
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