The suspect in the Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine others remains at large on Dec. 18 as authorities pleaded for the public’s help in the investigation.
Authorities have released security camera images and footage of a masked man they believe to be a person of interest, based on witness accounts from survivors. But investigators have not been able to name a suspect or determine a motive in the Dec. 13 campus shooting.
“He could be anywhere,” Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said of the gunman at a news conference on Dec. 17. “We still don’t know who the person is or where he is.”
Providence police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation hope the new photos and videos will generate tips from the public that could help them identify the suspect. Authorities have been canvassing nearby neighborhoods and have received hundreds of tips in the days since the brazen attack.
The shooting is the latest incident of gun violence that has rocked the nation, as the manhunt for the suspect entered its sixth day on Dec. 18. The lack of information and identification on the shooter has left residents of Providence and the community at Brown University on edge.
Here’s what we know about the shooting and ongoing investigation:
Deadly shooting occurred during final examinations
The shooting occurred shortly after 4 p.m. local time on Dec. 13 in an engineering building with unlocked doors as students were studying or taking final exams. Authorities said the suspect opened fire with a 9mm gun inside a classroom and then fled.
The attack prompted a campus lockdown that left students barricaded in rooms or hiding for hours. Investigators later recovered 9mm shell casings from the scene.
Brown University, which has nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is considered one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the country. Brown was founded in 1764 and is located in Providence, Rhode Island.
Who were the victims?
Two students were killed, and nine others were injured in the attack. The two students killed were identified as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Virginia who immigrated from Uzbekistan.
As of Dec. 17, the Rhode Island Hospital said six patients wounded in the shooting were in stable condition, one is in critical but stable condition, and two have been discharged.
They witnessed shootings firsthand. Then it happened again at Brown.
Why was Brown University attacked?
Though Perez previously said investigators believe the suspect “definitely targeted Brown University,” they still have not identified a suspect. The shooter’s motive remains unclear.
Authorities have warned the public to refrain from speculation and spreading misinformation.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha has said there is “nothing to indicate motive at all related to ethnicity or political outlook.” “That is a dangerous road to go down,” said the attorney general, adding that while one or two witnesses heard the shooter “shout something,” others did not.
On Dec. 16, Brown University released a statement dispelling rumors about a potential suspect, urging the public not to target individuals. The university had removed a webpage featuring a community member and said there was “harmful doxxing activity.”
Investigators release images, video of person of interest
The Providence Police Department released new images on Dec. 17 of a person they seek to identify and speak with, saying they are “close enough” to the person of interest. The grainy photos showed a man wearing a jacket over a hooded sweatshirt, his face visible, walking along a street.
“This is a person we would like to speak with,” Perez said, describing the person as someone “who may have information relevant to the investigation.”
The new photos came a day after local police and the FBI provided enhanced images and video of the masked man walking through neighborhoods near the Ivy League university. The footage, which was mostly taken from residential doorbell cameras, showed the potential suspect in the area before and immediately after the shooting.
In one video, the suspected shooter can be seen leaving the scene of the shooting as a police car with flashing emergency lights arrives. Another video shows the suspect walking along that street just minutes after the attack.
Investigators believe it was likely the person was “casing” the scene, according to Perez, who has noted that the person was more than likely the suspected shooter and not just a person of interest.
Public’s help in identifying the person of interest
While the man in the video is masked, authorities hope the images and video will help someone recognize the person’s body, gait, movements, or posture. Perez has also called on residents who live in the area to check their security cameras for any possible sightings of the suspect.
The police chief said about 200 tips arrive each day, and as of Dec. 16, they had 200 “actionable” tips.
The FBI is also offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of the shooter, whom law enforcement described as “armed and dangerous.”
Perez called the manhunt “probably the most intense investigation that we have in this nation.” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he shared the feelings of the city’s residents and Brown students who were “restless and eager” for an arrest.
Investigation hampered by lack of security cameras in area
Authorities have said the investigation has been hampered by a lack of security cameras in the university’s engineering building and in the nearby area.
Early on Dec. 14, the FBI and local police announced they had detained a person of interest in the shooting. But authorities released the unnamed man, who was in his 20s, that evening because evidence “now points in a different direction.”
Brown University shooting: Why was a ‘person of interest’ released in the attack?
Days-long manhunt for suspect in high-profile attack
Though it is rare for a perpetrator in a high-profile attack to evade capture for multiple days, it is not unprecedented.
“This is outside of the norm,” Felipe Rodriguez, a former New York Police detective who now teaches at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Reuters. “Mass shooters, by large, are usually killed at the scene or quickly captured.”
Recent incidents include the search for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. Mangione had eluded authorities for five days before he was captured in Pennsylvania after he was spotted eating at a McDonald’s by a customer and an employee who believed he resembled the gunman.
In September, the suspect in the shooting of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk was taken into custody after a 33-hour manhunt. The suspect, who was identified as Tyler Robinson, was arrested after a relative and a family friend alerted local law enforcement that he had made comments suggesting he had committed the murder, authorities said at the time.
Contributing: Michael Loria and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Providence Journal staff; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brown University shooting. What we know about the deadly attack
