A person of interest in the shooting that killed two people and wounded nine others at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday has been detained, US police have said.
Providence police chief Oscar Perez confirmed at a news conference on Sunday that the person of interest was in their 20s. Perez did not provide many other details about the person, including whether that person was connected to Brown.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, said on Sunday that the agency activated its “cellular analysis survey team to provide critical geolocation capabilities”, adding that law enforcement was able to detain the person of interest “based off a lead” by Providence police.
The person of interest was taken into custody about 27km from Providence, at a hotel in Coventry, according to reports. Perez said authorities at the moment were not searching for anyone else in connection with the shooting.
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According to a CNN photojournalist who was staying at the hotel, guests were woken up shortly before 4am to loud banging from police who said: “Open up.”
Guests also heard police saying, “We have a warrant for your apartment,” and that they were going to take the person of interest “back to the cruiser”.
US law enforcement often uses the term “person of interest” to refer to someone whom they consider important to a criminal investigation – but whom there is not enough evidence to consider a suspect and accuse of having committed the underlying offence.
Saturday’s shooting at the Ivy League institution occurred during final exams at the campus. The attack erupted in the engineering building, and the gunman initially managed to flee.
Hundreds of police officers scoured Brown as well as nearby neighbourhoods while poring over surveillance video in search of the gunman, who opened fire inside a classroom.
One of the people wounded in the shooting has been discharged from the hospital, one victim remains in critical but stable condition and seven others remain in stable condition, police said on Sunday.
Speaking to Ocean State Media, Brown economics professor Rachel Friedberg said the attack occurred during a final exam review session for her class.
Friedberg, who was not present during the attack, learned of the details from a teaching assistant who was leading the session.
“The room has stadium seating with doors that enter at the top,” Friedberg recounted. “He said that the shooter came in the doors, yelled something – he couldn’t remember what he yelled – and started shooting.
“Students started to scramble to try to get away from the shooter, trying to get lower down in the stadium seating, and people got shot ... I don’t know if they’re the only ones who got shot or not.”
Identified by the New York Times as Joseph Oduro, the 21-year old teaching assistant said that upon entering the lecture hall, the gunman shouted something. Oduro said that he and the police are currently trying to figure out what the gunman was saying.
Oduro added: “The students in the middle were impacted the most ... Many of them were lying there and they were not moving. I have no idea how many.”
Meanwhile, one student, 18-year-old Spencer Yang, described being shot in the leg while helping another student as they stayed hidden.
“To keep him conscious, I just started talking to him so he didn’t close his eyes and fall asleep,” Yang, a first-year student, told the New York Times from a Rhode Island hospital where he is currently recovering from his leg wound.
“I handed him my water ... He wasn’t able to respond that well. He was just there nodding and making noise,” Yang said, adding: “He’s stable now, thankfully.”
Among those at Brown during Saturday’s attack was 20-year-old Zoe Weissman, who had survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 victims.
“So ... my friend called me, I’m in my dorm and she asked if I was in Barus and Holley, which is the building where the shooting occurred, and I told her, no,” Weisman told MS NOW.
She added: “And I’m actually from Parkland, and I survived the shooting there. And, so, I was like, I just – that’s where my brain immediately went. And I was like, tell me if there’s a shooting and they confirmed for me. And so ever since then, I’ve just been staying in my room. I’ve been on the phone with my family, my friends, and just keeping updated.
“I think mentally, you know, I feel like I’m 12 again. This just feels exactly like how I felt in 2018. But honestly, I’m really angry. I’m really angry that this is happening to me all over again, and I’m just in shock.”
Providence leaders on Sunday warned residents there would temporarily be a heavier police presence in the community. And many local businesses announced that they are closed for now, citing the shock and heartbreak caused by news of the deadly shooting.
“Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us,” Brown president Christina Paxson said at the news conference.
A shelter in place order connected to Saturday’s shooting was lifted at 5.42am Sunday. However, a message to the university community warned that access to certain areas of campus will remain limited. And the message warned that people who leave certain buildings, including apartments, within a police perimeter would be “unable to return”.
“It is important to follow instructions from law enforcement at all times,” the alert said.
On Sunday morning Paxson announced that all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects were cancelled for the rest of the semester.
“In the immediate aftermath of these devastating events, we recognize that learning and assessment are significantly hindered in the short term and that many students and others will wish to depart campus,” Paxson wrote.
Saturday’s violence at Brown brought the number of mass shootings in the US for the year to at least 389, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Saturday was the 347th day of the year.
The Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan resource, defines mass shootings as ones in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
Such bloodshed occurring at Brown reignited the US’s ongoing debate on whether the federal government should implement more substantial gun control in response to the perennially high numbers of mass shootings reported in the country.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, drew parallels to the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in his state of Connecticut which killed 26 people.
“What I know is that a community never, ever recovers from a shooting like this,” he told CNN on Sunday.
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He went on to call for stricter gun laws, saying states with them have lower rates of violence than those with lax restrictions.
Senator Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat and Baptist minister, echoed similar sentiments to NBC on Sunday.
“I can tell you that as a pastor who has presided over many funerals, I don’t think that there’s any pain deeper than when nature is violently reversed and rather than children burying their parents, the parent has to bury the child,” Warnock said. “And so we pray prayers for these families. But we have to pray not only with our lips – but with our action.
“Any nation that tolerates this kind of violence year after year, decade after decade in random places on our college and school campuses without doing all that we can to stop it is broken and in need of moral repair.” – Guardian
