2 dead, 9 wounded as police detain person of interest in Brown University shooting

RHODE ISLAND: Police in Providence, Rhode Island, have detained a “person of interest” following an extensive manhunt for the gunman who killed two people at Brown University, Al Jazeera reported, citing an official statement

Addressing a news conference on Sunday, Police Colonel Oscar Perez said the individual had been detained that morning and that investigators are not currently searching for anyone else in connection with the shooting at the Ivy League campus in the northeastern United States. Authorities have not disclosed the identity of the person of interest.

The attack unfolded on Saturday when a suspect armed with a firearm entered a campus building where students were taking examinations and opened fire. Nine people were injured, seven of them critically, according to police, as per Al Jazeera.

The shooting prompted a massive manhunt involving more than 400 law enforcement personnel, including agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. As officers searched for the suspect, Brown University was placed under lockdown.

Students described hiding under desks for hours after alerts warning of an active shooter were issued, as fear spread across the campus.

In an advisory issued on Sunday, the university said police had lifted the shelter-in-place order, although officers remained on site and the area was still being treated as an active crime scene, according to Al Jazeera.

Access to several parts of the campus remained restricted, with police maintaining a security perimeter around Minden Hall and nearby apartment buildings, Brown said.

Investigators had earlier released surveillance footage showing the suspect, described as a male possibly in his 30s, wearing black. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said on Saturday that the gunman may have been wearing a mask and confirmed that shell casings were recovered from the scene.

Colonel Perez said detectives are continuing to investigate why the building was targeted and what motivated the attack.

The incident marked the second deadly shooting at a US university in recent days, following a fatal gun attack at Kentucky State University earlier in the week.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, the United States has recorded 389 mass shootings so far this year, including at least six at schools. Last year, more than 500 mass shootings were reported nationwide. (ANI)