Brown University shooting manhunt continues as mayor urges people to share tips
(CBS NEWS) – According to CBS, police on Monday renewed their search for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others a day after releasing a person of interest. Providence’s mayor urged people to submit tips in hopes of identifying the shooter.
Authorities announced the man’s release late Sunday night after determining that the evidence “points in a different direction,” after previously saying they had detained him at a hotel in connection with the attack and lifted a lockdown on campus.
The man’s release left law enforcement without any known suspect, with officials pledging to redouble their efforts to pinpoint the killer’s identity.
“We have a murderer out there,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said Sunday night.
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr. said, “We followed on a lead. And we followed on a specific lead … That’s how investigations work.”
“It’s not a mistake. It’s just how investigations work,” he said.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he understands that the community is anxious, but that there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting.
On Monday, he urged people to submit any information, including video or photo evidence, that could help authorities pinpoint the gunman.
On Sunday morning, officials detained a person of interest at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles from Providence. Sources told CBS News that the individual was a 24-year-old man, though authorities never released his name.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so,” Neronha said.
He said there was some evidence that pointed to the man authorities detained, but “that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, getting off more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
Authorities believe they are looking for a person shown in a small, short clip of video footage walking away, the mayor said. The person’s back is to the camera. Investigators said it wasn’t clear whether the suspect is a student.
A shelter-in-place for Brown University was lifted on Sunday morning.
The shooting victims were identified as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek American student.
Smiley told reporters on Sunday that seven of those hospitalized remain in stable condition and one is in critical condition. Smiley confirmed that he had spoken to four of the victims.
“The resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me, is frankly pretty overwhelming,” he said.
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. The remaining classes and exams for the semester were canceled.
