The man held as a “person of interest” in the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine injured will be released from custody, authorities said on Sunday night.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said earlier at a midday news conference that a man in his 20s had been taken into custody in connection with Saturday’s gun violence but gave no further details.
But at a late-night news conference hours later, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and other state and local officials told reporters the man detained would be released from custody, saying the investigation was going into a “different direction.”
Authorities said they believed an unidentified person pictured in surveillance footage to be the person they were still looking for.
FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier Sunday in a post on X that the person of interest had been detained in a hotel room in the Rhode Island town of Coventry, a 30-minute drive from the Brown campus. An FBI team specializing in cellular data analysis used geolocation information to track the suspect, Patel said.
The mass shooting — the latest of nearly 400 in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive — shook the community at the university, one of the oldest in the United States. The school canceled exams, and classes, for the rest of the year and the campus was quiet on Sunday as a light snowfall blanketed the city.
Authorities Release Video Of Suspect
Seven people injured at Brown University were in stable condition, Smiley said. One remained in critical but stable condition, while another had been discharged, he added.
Shelter-in-place orders at the university and nearby areas were lifted on Sunday. Smiley said earlier in the day that residents should expect a visible police presence across the city.
Officials said a gunman fled after shooting students in Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, which had unlocked doors during exams. Authorities released video of a person in black near the site, possibly masked, though not confirmed.
(With inputs from Reuters)
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://stratnewsglobal.com/united-states/authorities-release-person-of-interest-in-brown-university-mass-shooting/&media=https://stratnewsglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SNG-Story-PLAC-54.jpg&description=The man held as a "person of interest" in the Brown University mass shooting will be released from custody.){kind=link}