Manhunt Continues After Deadly Brown University Mass Shooting
A manhunt for the suspect in Saturday’s Brown University shooting, who killed two students and injured nine others, is continuing into a third day.
False Start: A 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, who was detained early Sunday in connection to the attack, was let go later that day. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said evidence now “points in a different direction.”
FBI Director Kash Patel posted shortly after the now-released man was brought into police custody, touting the FBI’s cell phone tracking in helping locate the person of interest. Critics are drawing connections to Patel’s post after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s murder, when he said “the subject” was in custody — but that person was also later let go.
The investigation appears to be back at square one. Officials released a second video of the possible suspect on Monday, after releasing a first on Saturday night. They are also asking local residents to review and share doorbell and security camera footage showing “anything that looks suspicious.”
INSIDE THE ATTACK
Mayor Brett Smiley said that there have been no additional credible threats to the Providence community since Saturday, but added that there is no way of knowing if the killer is still in the city.
MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, from Virginia and Ella Cook, 19, from Alabama were killed in the shooting.
The masked shooter burst into a Brown classroom carrying a rifle, as about 60 students were finishing a final exam review for an economics course. Witnesses said he shouted something unintelligible before opening fire and then fleeing.
Students barricaded themselves inside classrooms and other university buildings for hours.
For some Brown University students, Saturday’s school shooting wasn’t the first they’ve experienced firsthand.
Brown junior Mia Tretta, 21, survived a 2019 shooting at her California high school when she was 15, when she was shot in the stomach. Two students and the shooter were killed in the attack, including Tretta’s best friend.
Zoe Weissman, 20, was a middle school student in Parkland, Florida, when a gunman killed 17 people at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
“Mentally, I feel like I’m 12 again. This just feels exactly like how I felt in 2018,” Weissman said. “I’m really angry that this is happening to me all over again.“