Summary of the day so far
Politicians and law enforcement officials held a press conference in Providence, Rhode Island, a day after a shooter killed two people and injured several others at Brown University.
Here is what we know about the attack after the latest update:
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A person in their 20s was taken into custody on Sunday morning. Police chief Col Oscar Perez declined to say whether the person of interest was the same person seen in surveillance footage released by authorities on Saturday. Officials did not name the person.
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A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University during final exams on the Ivy League campus.
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Brown University president Christina Paxson confirmed that the two people killed were students. A shelter-in-place in effect for the area was lifted on Sunday morning.
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Eight people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island hospital, where seven were in critical but stable condition, Paxson said on Sunday. One person remains in a critical condition, she added. One other student was discharged from hospital on Saturday night and left with their parents, Paxson said.
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Providence’s mayor Brett Smiley said he had visited the victims of the attack in hospital, praising their resilience and the efforts of emergency medical staff who treated them.
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Smiley declined to name any of the shooting victims, saying authorities had not yet been able to contact all the relatives.
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Officials refused to say whether a gun used in the attack had been found. Earlier reports on CNN said the person of interest had two firearms with them. The Associated press reported officials said two loaded 30-round magazines had been found. Officials did not comment on any speculation.
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Law enforcement agencies were seen at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, roping off rooms as part of the investigation into the shooting. An FBI agent said the person of interest had been arrested at the hotel, which is a short drive from Brown University.
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The FBI used cellphone data to locate the person of interest, the agency’s director Kash Patel said.
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Donald Trump paid tribute to the victims in the attack. Speaking at the White House, the US president said: “I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from Heaven.” The president added: “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. Thank you very much. It’s a very important thing to say, and we mean it.”
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The shooting occurred in the Barus and Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices. Brown, one of the America’s most prestigious colleges, has roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students.
Key events
A small Glock handgun with a laser sight attached and a revolver were found in a hotel room at the Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, federal law enforcement sources have told CNN.
CNN also reports the person of interest detained is male. Officers reportedly banged on the door and told him to open up.
Law enforcement often uses the term “person of interest” to refer to someone whom they consider important to a criminal investigation – but whom there is not enough evidence to consider a suspect and accuse of having committed the underlying offense.
We have more pictures coming from Brown University where the community is dealing with the aftermath of a shooting that has left two people dead and eight people still in hospital.
Rhode Island governor Dan McKee has written a public letter to his constituents following the shooting at Brown University.
In the letter he thanked emergency responders for their speed in dealing with the shooting and working hard to keep the community safe.
“Right now, our community is in pain,” McKee wrote in the letter. “Every year, emergency responders and students drill for the unthinkable – a shooting at our schools. Yesterday, that action became all too real when a gunman opened fire on a classroom of innocent Brown University students.”
As reported by the Providence Journal, McKee added: “I am not just the governor. I am a Rhode Islander. I am a parent and a grandparent. I cannot fathom the depth of fear, and in some cases, grief the families of those students are experiencing today.”
More politicians are reacting to the shooting at Brown University yesterday, sending tributes to victims and their families while calling for urgent action to end gun violence.
California senator Adam Schiff posted on X, saying:
I’m praying for all of the victims, their families, and the entire Brown University community as it grieves this horrific act of gun violence. How many more tragedies, more lives lost, more grieving families, before we act? We can and we must end our gun violence epidemic.”
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted:
On this solemn anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, we remember the 26 beautiful souls taken in an act of unimaginable violence. Yesterday’s shooting at Brown University is a painful reminder that this grief is not confined to history. Thirteen years later, communities are still being torn apart by gun violence—and the weight of that loss continues to demand action. We must not stop fighting until the job is done.
California senator Alex Padilla wrote:
Angela and I are horrified by last night’s shooting at Brown University that left two students dead, nine injured, and hundreds more traumatized. We pray for the victims, their families, and the entire Brown community. Gun violence in America must come to an end. I refuse to give into the notion that there’s nothing more we can do to try to prevent these tragedies.
Teaching assistant Joseph Oduro, 21, told CNN he was in a classroom that was attacked.
“The first couple of gunshots went straight to the chalkboard right where I was standing,” Oduro said. “Who knows, if I didn’t duck, maybe I’m not here today.“
A student next to him took two bullets to the leg and was due to undergo surgery on Sunday, he said.
Melania Trump sends ‘thoughts and prayers' to victims' families
First lady Melania Trump spoke after the US president at a White House holiday event to pay tribute to the people killed in attacks in Providence, Rhode Island, and Bondi Beach, Sydney.
Melania said: “My thoughts and prayers go to the families of, the people who lost the loved ones around the world in this, difficult time.”
‘Things can happen', Trump says of mass shooting at Brown
Robert Mackey
The White House has shared video on social media of Donald Trump’s remarks on the mass shooting at Brown at a holiday reception at the White House on Sunday.
“Before we begin, I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from Heaven,” the president said.
“Likewise, in Australia, as you know, that was a terrible attack: 11 dead, 29 wounded, and that was an antisemitic attack, obviously,” Trump said.
The president also mentioned the deadly attack on three Americans serving in Syria on Saturday. “In Syria, also, we had an attack in Syria, and we had three great patriots terminated by bad people, and not the Syrian government, it was Isis,” Trump said.
“Brown University,” Trump added, “great school, really one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world. Things can happen,” the president said.
“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. Thank you very much. It’s a very important thing to say, and we mean it.”
Trump also said that in Syria “there will be big damage done” to those responsible for the attack on US service members.
The president also praised the man who tackled one of the attackers in Australia.
Summary of the day so far
Politicians and law enforcement officials held a press conference in Providence, Rhode Island, a day after a shooter killed two people and injured several others at Brown University.
Here is what we know about the attack after the latest update:
-
A person in their 20s was taken into custody on Sunday morning. Police chief Col Oscar Perez declined to say whether the person of interest was the same person seen in surveillance footage released by authorities on Saturday. Officials did not name the person.
-
A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University during final exams on the Ivy League campus.
-
Brown University president Christina Paxson confirmed that the two people killed were students. A shelter-in-place in effect for the area was lifted on Sunday morning.
-
Eight people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island hospital, where seven were in critical but stable condition, Paxson said on Sunday. One person remains in a critical condition, she added. One other student was discharged from hospital on Saturday night and left with their parents, Paxson said.
-
Providence’s mayor Brett Smiley said he had visited the victims of the attack in hospital, praising their resilience and the efforts of emergency medical staff who treated them.
-
Smiley declined to name any of the shooting victims, saying authorities had not yet been able to contact all the relatives.
-
Officials refused to say whether a gun used in the attack had been found. Earlier reports on CNN said the person of interest had two firearms with them. The Associated press reported officials said two loaded 30-round magazines had been found. Officials did not comment on any speculation.
-
Law enforcement agencies were seen at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, roping off rooms as part of the investigation into the shooting. An FBI agent said the person of interest had been arrested at the hotel, which is a short drive from Brown University.
-
The FBI used cellphone data to locate the person of interest, the agency’s director Kash Patel said.
-
Donald Trump paid tribute to the victims in the attack. Speaking at the White House, the US president said: “I want to just pay my respects to the people, unfortunately two are no longer with us, Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from Heaven.” The president added: “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. Thank you very much. It’s a very important thing to say, and we mean it.”
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The shooting occurred in the Barus and Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices. Brown, one of the America’s most prestigious colleges, has roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students.
Earlier on Sunday, Georgia senator Raphael Warnock urged people to find “common humanity” after a deadly shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Warnock said: “I can tell you that as a pastor who has presided over many funerals, I don’t think that there’s any pain deeper than when nature is violently reversed and rather than children burying their parents, the parent has to bury the child. And so we pray prayers for these families.”
Warnock, who pushed Congress to pass more gun control legislation after two students and two teachers at a high school in his home state of Georgia were shot to death in 2024, went on to call for action after yet another mass shooting at an education facility in America.
He told NBC: “We have to pray not only with our lips, but with our action. Any nation that tolerates this kind of violence year after year, decade after decade in random places on our college and school campuses without doing all that we can to stop it is broken and in need of moral repair.”
Police chief declines to say if person of interest was connected to university
During the press conference, Providence police chief Col Oscar Perez declined to say if the person of interest had any connection to Brown University.
“I’m not ready to confirm or comment on any of that,” Perez told reporters. “Again, I got to respect the process, and so at this point, we’re just going to continue, like the mayor stated. It’s complex, but we want to make sure that we have a successful prosecution.”
Providence police chief Col Oscar Perez said at this moment an eventual case against a shooting suspect is being treated as a state prosecution, rather than a federal one.
