Law enforcement officials continue their search for the Brown University shooting suspect, as a person of interest has been released from custody.
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During a late-night press conference on Sunday, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley confirmed the news. “We want to inform the community that that individual will shortly be released from Providence Police.”
“To be clear, we’ve never stopped our investigation,” Smiley continued. “Providence police and our partners and state police, the FBI and others, have continuously run down leads and work this case beyond the person of interest who had been detained yesterday.”
The Attorney General of Rhode Island, Peter Neronha, also spoke out about the situation. “We have a murderer out there, frankly, and so we’re not going to give away the game plan.”
Neronha further shared that law enforcement was not withholding video of the suspect. However, there is not much available on the clips.
The initial person of interest was taken into custody at a Conventry hotel on Sunday and was released at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Monday.
According to The New York Times, Smiley also stated that officials had no way of knowing if the gunman was still in the city. “We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community,” the mayor pointed out. He then noted that officials had not received “any credible or specific threats to the Povdience community.”
The Brown University Shooting Victims Identified as Multiple University Close Amid Suspect Search
Two Brown University students were killed in the shooting, which took place on Saturday evening.
The deceased students were identified as Ella Cook, a Brown University sophomore and vice president of the Brown College Republicans chapter, and MuhammadAziz Umurzakov, a student from Uzbekistan in central Asia.
Brown University has since canceled its remaining fall semester classes.
Along with Brown University, other Rhode Island universities have closed amid the law enforcement search for the shooting suspect.
The University of Rhode Island announced it was canceling in-person classes for Monday. It was noted that online exams scheduled would “proceed as scheduled.”
The university stated there was no known threat to its campus, which is located 30 miles from Brown University. It decided to follow “consideration of concerns shared by members” of the university’s family.
Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) held all of its classes remotely on Monday.
Meanwhile, Roger Williams University (RWU) announced final exams will continue as scheduled on Monday and Tuesday. The university stated that the decision was made to get students home as quickly and safely as possible. It was also planning to increase police patrolling at its Bristol campus.