PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police resumed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a man of interest after determining evidence pointed “in a different direction.”
Authorities announced the man's release at a news conference late Sunday, marking a setback in the investigation into Saturday's attack on the Ivy League school's campus.
It revealed the progress authorities thought they had made earlier in the day when they announced they had detained him at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack and lifted the lockdown on campus.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he understands the community is concerned, but there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting.
There are currently no suspects in the fatal shooting.
The release of the person of interest left law enforcement without any known suspects, and officials vowed to redouble their efforts by campaigning for video surveillance that could help identify the killer.
“We have a killer,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha.
Officials took the suspect into custody Sunday morning at the Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Providence. Two people familiar with the case identified the man as a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, although authorities have not released his name.
“I've been around long enough to know that sometimes you're headed in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that's exactly what's happened in the last 24 hours or so,” Neronha said.
He said there was some evidence pointing to a man in authorities' custody, but “that evidence has to be corroborated and corroborated. And in the last 24 hours leading up to very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”
The mayor said authorities believe they are looking for the man shown in the short video footage running away. The man stands with his back to the camera.
“We don't have any evidence at this point that it was anything more than just this individual,” Smiley said Monday on ABC's “Good Morning America.”
Despite the increased police presence at Brown, officials are not recommending another stay-at-home order like the one that followed the shooting Saturday afternoon, as hundreds of officers searched for the gunman and urged students and staff to stay home.
The shooting happened during a busy time on campus.
The shooting took place during final exams.
A gunman opened fire in a Corps of Engineers classroom, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun, a law enforcement official told the AP. Two handguns were recovered when a person of interest was taken into custody, and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators did not immediately understand how the shooter got into the classroom on the first floor of the seven-story complex that houses the Faculty of Engineering and Physics.
The attack caused hours of chaos on campus and surrounding areas as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in the library shaking and wincing after hearing loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
During the lockdown, which was only lifted on Sunday after a person of interest was taken into custody, many students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves as police searched for the shooter.
One of the nine injured students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
City leaders, residents and others gathered in the park Sunday evening to remember the victims. The event was originally planned as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.
Smiley said he visited some of the wounded students and was inspired by their courage, hope and gratitude. “The resilience that these survivors have demonstrated and shared with me is, quite frankly, mind-boggling,” he said.
Brown, the seventh oldest institution of higher education in the United States, is one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, with approximately 7,300 undergraduate and more than 3,000 graduate students. The school has canceled all remaining classes and exams for this semester.
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Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington.
