Authorities clear man detained in Brown University shooting as manhunt continues

A man briefly detained as a “person of interest” in the fatal shooting at Brown University will be released after investigators determined he was not connected to the attack, authorities said late Sunday.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters that the man, in his 20s, had been taken into custody earlier in the day but was no longer considered linked to the shooting that left two students dead and nine others injured at the Ivy League campus.

Speaking alongside Smiley, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said there had initially been enough cause to detain the man, but that assessment had since changed.

“There had been a ‘quantum of evidence’ that justified holding him,” Neronha said. “We have not yet solved this case, but I am confident we are going to do that in the near future.”

The shooting unfolded on Saturday when an unidentified gunman entered a campus building where students were sitting exams and opened fire before fleeing. The attack triggered a massive manhunt and forced the university into a shelter-in-place lockdown that lasted for hours.

Officials now believe the suspect is an unidentified individual captured on security footage at the scene. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said investigators recovered shell casings and are examining whether the gunman wore a mask.

Smiley said seven of the injured remain in stable condition, one person is in critical condition, and another has been discharged from hospital.

More than 400 law enforcement personnel, including agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were involved in the search as students hid under desks and in classrooms following alerts of an active shooter.

Brown University lifted its shelter-in-place order on Sunday but said parts of the campus remained closed as police maintained a security perimeter around Minden Hall and nearby apartment buildings. Authorities are still investigating why the location was targeted.

The attack marks the second deadly shooting at a US university in recent days, following a fatal incident at Kentucky State University earlier this week. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has recorded 389 mass shootings so far this year, including at least six on school campuses.