First responders with the Providence Fire Department maneuver an empty stretcher close to the Barus and Holley constructing at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday.
Bing Guan/AFP by way of Getty Images
conceal caption
toggle caption
Bing Guan/AFP by way of Getty Images
A gunman opened hearth inside a Brown University educational constructing Saturday afternoon as college students have been gathered to take their ultimate exams, killing two college students and injuring 9 others.
Officials in Providence, R.I., stated Sunday morning that police had detained a person in his 20s as an individual of curiosity. A supply aware of the investigation, who was not licensed to talk publicly, recognized the particular person of curiosity as Benjamin Erickson. Authorities haven’t launched another particulars about him or a possible motive.
The outbreak of violence on the Ivy League college shocked the group, simply days earlier than college students and school have been making ready to go away for winter break, stated Providence Mayor Brett P. Smiley.
“I believe perhaps intellectually we knew it may occur anyplace, together with right here,” Smiley stated at a Sunday morning press convention, “however that is not the identical because it occurring in our group.”
The assault drew messages of sympathy and well-wishes from throughout the state and past, together with from President Trump, who provided his condolences to the victims and their households.
“Brown University, [is a] nice college,” Trump stated Sunday from the White House. “To the 9 injured, get nicely quick, and to the households of these two which might be now not with us, I pay my deepest regards and respects.”
Seven of the victims have been in “vital however secure” situation on Sunday, whereas one sufferer was in vital situation, in line with Brown University President Christina Paxson. A ninth sufferer was handled on the hospital and discharged.
The capturing occurred at round 4 p.m. ET on the Barus & Holley engineering and physics constructing in an economics class, Paxson stated.
“Our group is robust, and we’ll get by means of it,” she stated in a press briefing Sunday. “But it is devastating.”
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez stated Sunday that investigators weren’t actively in search of anybody else however that the investigation was ongoing.
Law enforcement detained the particular person of curiosity Sunday morning in a resort room in Coventry, about 20 miles southwest of Brown, based mostly on a lead by the Providence Police, FBI Director Kash Patel stated in a put up on X.
Investigators had beforehand stated they have been looking for a suspect described as “a male wearing black.” The suspect fled the scene on foot, nevertheless it was unclear how he entered the constructing, police added. Brown University Provost Francis Doyle stated playing cards are swiped to entry the constructing however that there was “in all probability a number of visitors” throughout exams.
Officials had additionally launched a brief video of an individual of curiosity strolling away from the scene of the capturing alongside a sidewalk, however the video didn’t present the particular person’s face.
On Sunday, Doyle stated Brown would cancel virtually all remaining in-person exams for the autumn semester in order that the college may “focus our efforts on offering care and help to the members of our group as we grapple with the sorrow, worry and anxiousness that’s impacting all of us proper now.”
Authorities lifted a shelter-in-place order for the Brown campus and surrounding areas Sunday morning.
