Rhode Island authorities say they have an individual in custody following a mass shooting at one of the nation’s top colleges.
Police said Sunday morning they had identified and detained a “person of interest” in connection with Saturday afternoon’s attack at Brown University in Providence, which left two people dead and eight more wounded.
The person detained is in their 30s, Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of police in Providence, told the New York Times. The individual was nabbed at a Providence-area hotel, a law enforcement official in Rhode Island told CNN.
Police said several hundred police officers had been deployed to hunt through the campus and surrounding area, combing through hours of CCTV footage, to track down the person suspected of opening fire in one of the college’s classrooms during a final exam review.
Video from the campus, released by Rhode Island Police, shows a black-clad individual walking slowly away from the site of the shooting.
Officials said they hadn’t been able to determine whether the man is a student at the university, given his face wasn’t visible in the clip and that he may have been wearing what some witnesses thought was a camouflage mask.
Police have not yet publicly released the names of those killed and injured in the shooting. Among the eight wounded, six are described as being in critical but stable condition.
Providence Mayor Brett P. Smiley confirmed their status at a press conference Saturday night. “Those are the only injuries or casualties that we know at this time, but these numbers may change, we are still in early hours,” he said.
University president Christina H. Paxson has offered her condolences to the families and words of support for the college community.
“This is a deeply tragic day for Brown, our families, and our local community,” she said. “There are truly no words that can express the deep sorrow we are feeling for the victims of the shooting that took place today at the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building.”
“Our hearts are with their families,” she added.
Arriving back at the White House from a football game late Saturday night, the president said he had been made aware of the situation, describing it as “a terrible thing.”
“All we can do right now is 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, but it’s a shame. Just pray.”
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