A search was still underway Tuesday for the person connected to the shooting at Brown University on Saturday that killed two students and injured nine others.
Authorities are asking the public to help identify a masked man they believe to be of interest in the shooting. Providence police released new, enhanced video Tuesday evening of the person of interest captured on the East Side of Providence on Saturday afternoon before the shooting. The FBI’s field office separately released a video timeline of the person of interest’s movements.
Students who were at the scene when the shooting happened have also been asked to help identify the man.
“Even an incidental detail may be helpful in investigating,” the police department said in a post on X.
Surveillance photos and videos released by officials Monday evening depict a man pacing a few blocks from the Brown University campus hours before the attack took place Saturday.
One photo shows the man wearing a black crossbody bag and walking with his hands in his pockets.
The footage released Tuesday evening shows the person of interest walking near the campus in a residential area on Waterman Avenue and Hope Street at around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Authorities are asking for residents in the area to share any additional video footage — such as from home or Tesla cameras — going as far back as a week.
Brown University President Christina Paxson addressed unease about the shooter still being at large in Tuesday evening’s news conference, stating that the university “is deeply committed to the safety and security and wellbeing of our community, and I’ve been deeply saddened to see people questioning that. We understand that as time goes on, there is maybe a natural instinct to assign responsibility for a tragic event like this. Anxiety and fear is very natural, but the shooter is responsible.”
As of Tuesday, authorities said they had not identified a motive for the shooter, nor had they recovered a weapon.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Tuesday that officials are searching for evidence that could determine whether the shooter disposed of the weapon along their escape route.
“We have a good picture of the gunman’s route, but it’s not complete yet,” Neronha told MS NOW.
The FBI announced a $50,000 reward Monday for any information that leads to the identification and arrest of the shooter, who a special agent in charge of the bureau’s Boston field office said is “armed and dangerous” during the news conference.
Students are expressing concern over campus safety protocol and the length of the investigation in the days since the shooting.
Justin Kuo, a student who sheltered in place on campus for roughly six hours, said Sunday that while authorities “did the best that they could with the time given,” there needs to be more protective measures implemented.
“There absolutely needs to be a look into the policies in place. I mean, we didn’t get a text at Brown until 10 to 15 minutes after the event,” Kuo told MS NOW.
Kerem Pele, a Brown University junior, spoke with MS NOW shortly after visiting a student at the hospital who had been injured during the shooting. Pele did not name the student.
“This has just made me feel a lot of, a lot of fear, but also a lot of anger at the situation,” Pele said. “It’s not just a single incident. It’s not just a single tragedy. This is a part of a larger systemic problem in our country, and I think that this, if anything else, is forcing people to reckon with that fact.”
The shooting took place Saturday inside a first-floor classroom in Brown’s Barus & Holley, an engineering and physics building, authorities said. They said police were alerted to the gunshots at 4:05 p.m. on Saturday.
All the victims of the shooting were students at the university, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson. Ella Cook, 19, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, of Midlothian, Virginia, were killed.
Nine others were treated for gunshot wounds at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Of the seven victims who remain hospitalized, one is in critical condition, five are in critical but stable status, and another is stable, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said Tuesday.
Officials have not released the names of the injured students.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.