US authorities detain a person of interest after a mass shooting at Brown University leaves two students dead and nine wounded during exams
PROVIDENCE: US authorities have detained a person of interest following a mass shooting at Brown University that killed two people and wounded nine others.
A shooter opened fire on Saturday in a building at the elite Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, where exams were taking place.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley confirmed the detention and said a campus shelter-in-place order had been lifted.
Police Colonel Oscar Perez stated authorities were not currently looking for any other suspects in relation to the attack.
Of the nine wounded, one person remains in critical condition, seven are stable, and one has been discharged.
Joseph Oduro, a teaching assistant at Brown, said he was in a campus auditorium when the gunman entered and made eye contact with him.
“He came in, pointed the gun and then screamed something… then he just started shooting right after that,” Oduro told CNN.
Police released a 10-second video showing the suspect from behind, walking briskly down a deserted street after the shooting.
“It is shocking and so terribly sad,” Mayor Smiley later said on CNN, noting that students were “incredibly shaken up.”
University officials postponed all final exams scheduled for Sunday.
Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed in a letter that all 11 victims were students.
“This should not be normal,” Smiley said on CNN. “This should not be the case that every community needs to prepare for something like this to happen.”
There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
US President Donald Trump offered brief remarks on the incident during a White House event on Sunday.
“So to the nine injured, get well fast, and to the families of those two that are no longer with us, I pay my deepest regards and respects from the United States of America,” he said.
The university sent an emergency alert at 4:22 pm on Saturday reporting an active shooter near the Barus and Holley engineering building.
“Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice,” the alert instructed.
Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news reporting clothing and blood on a sidewalk. – AFP
