At least two people were killed and nine more critically injured in a shooting on Saturday at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, with the suspect still at large hours after the first shelter in place orders were issued.
Police scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighbourhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, back yards and porches for hours late into the night after the shooting was first reported in the afternoon.
The deputy chief of the Providence police, Timothy O’Hara, said that the suspect was “a male dressed in black”. The suspect is believed to have exited the Barus and Holley campus building where the shooting took place on Hope Street. O’Hara said officials were “utilising every resource possible to find this suspect.”
Police released footage of the man they suspected to be behind the shooting late on Saturday, adding that some witnesses reported that the man, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask.
University president Christina Paxson confirmed that 10 people who were shot were students, including the two killed. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting, authorities said.
Officials initially said a suspect was in custody, before saying that was not in fact the case and a manhunt was ongoing.
Providence mayor Brett Smiley told CNN that the doors of the engineering and physics building were unlocked because many final exams were under way there. “Based on what we heard from officials at Brown, anybody could have accessed the building at that time,” he said.
“We are a week and a half away from Christmas. And two people died today and another eight are in the hospital,” Smiley said earlier in the evening. “So please pray for those families.“
Brown is on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island’s state capital. The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.
Rhode Island governor Daniel McKee said “the unthinkable has happened.”
“This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has,” Paxson told reporters.
“We know our community wants answers, and we will provide them as soon as we can. For now, please know we are doing all we can to keep our community safe and have mobilized support for the students and their families,” Paxson said.
The search for the suspect was hampered in part because downtown Providence was crowded with holiday shoppers and thousands of people attending concerts, local media said. Federal law enforcement and police from surrounding cities and towns were assisting in the search, officials said. According to local news reports, venues across the city were bringing in extra security.
In remarks to reporters at the White House, Donald Trump said he’d been “fully briefed” on the situation.
“What a terrible thing it is. And all we can do right now is to pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt it looks like,” he said. “We’ll inform you later as to what’s happening. It’s a shame. It’s a shame. Just pray.”
US attorney general Pam Bondi said on X that the FBI and ATF agents “are on the scene of the tragic shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. Please pray for all involved.”
The incident was reported near the Barus and Holley building, a seven-story structure that houses the school of engineering and physics department, according to the school’s website. It includes 117 laboratories, 150 offices, 15 classrooms and 29 labs.
Brown student Chiang-Heng Chien told local media he was working in a lab with three other students when he saw the text about the active shooter situation a block away. They waited under desks for about two hours, he said.
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4pm.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as a half-dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm. He said he feared for a friend who he thought was inside the engineering building at the time.
The Ivy League school is a private, non-profit institution with about 7,300 undergraduates and just more than 3,000 graduate students, according to its website.
Saturday was the second day of final exams for the fall semester.
