What to know about the search for the Brown University shooting suspect
Dec 15, 2025, 10:39 AM | Updated: Dec 16, 2025, 4:28 pm
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police renewed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest in the case.
Here’s a look at what to know about the shootings and the manhunt:
Authorities announced the detained man’s release during a news conference late Sunday. That marked a setback in the investigation of Saturday’s attack on the Ivy League school’s campus and added to questions about the shooting and investigation, including an apparent lack of video evidence and whether the focus on the person of interest might have given the killer more time to flee.
In releasing the man police had detained at a Rhode Island hotel, investigators were apparently left without a known suspect. State Attorney General Peter Neronha acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, saying “We have a murderer out there.”
The shooting occurred as students were taking final exams.
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, getting off more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
One of the nine wounded students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the classroom, which is on the first floor of a seven-story complex that houses the engineering school and physics department.
The attack set off hours of chaos on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods, as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
The release of the person of interest left law enforcement without a known suspect, and authorities pledged to redouble their efforts by asking neighborhood residents and businesses for video surveillance that might help identify the attacker.
Authorities said Sunday that one of the reasons they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown’s engineering building doesn’t have many cameras.
The mayor said there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting, and the city’s schools were open Monday.
Brown University junior Mia Tretta was 15 years old when she was shot in the abdomen during a mass shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. Two students were killed, and she and two others were wounded.
On Saturday, Tretta was studying in her dorm with a friend when the first message arrived warning of an emergency at the university’s engineering building. As more alerts poured in urging people to remain locked down and stay away from windows, the familiarity of the language made clear what she had feared.
“No one should ever have to go through one shooting, let alone two,” Tretta told the AP by phone Sunday. “And as someone who was shot at my high school when I was 15 years old, I never thought that this was something I’d have to go through again.”
On Sunday evening, city leaders, residents and others gathered at a park to honor the victims. The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. The school canceled all remaining classes and exams for the semester.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Kimberlee Kruesi, Amanda Swinhart, Robert F. Bukaty and Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Michael Casey in Boston; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington.
