Brown shooter still at large after nearly 3 days

Crime scene tape and flowers left outside the Barus and Holley Building on the Brown University campus in Providence, R.I., on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. Police officers went door to door through the streets of Rhode Island’s capital city on Monday afternoon in search of video footage that might help them track down the gunman who killed two students and injured nine others at Brown University this weekend. (Christopher Capozziello/The New York Times)

By JACEY FORTIN

The gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others remained at large Tuesday morning, nearly three days after the attack, as authorities combed through video footage and sought tips from the public.

Investigators have yet to determine the identity of the man who carried out the shooting, and do not know where he has fled, Attorney General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island said Tuesday.

“The fact that people are scared is perfectly understandable, and I imagine there’ll be some element of that until we have this person in custody,” Neronha told NPR. “And we are literally working around the clock.”

Law enforcement officials have not indicated that they think that other people besides the gunman were involved in mounting the attack, and they have not disclosed any possible motives for the fatal shooting.

A “person of interest” was detained after the shooting, but was later released.

On Monday evening, President Donald Trump said that criticism over the search for a suspect should be directed at Brown University, not the FBI, which is working with state and local police on the investigation.

“This was a school problem,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “They had their own guards. They had their own police. They had their own everything.”

A spokesperson for Brown University did not comment on the remark by the president, whose administration has been waging a campaign against elite universities, including Brown. At a news conference Monday evening, Brett Smiley, the mayor of Providence, rejected criticism of the university, which he said had been a close collaborator in the investigation.

Neronha also disagreed with Trump. “This isn’t a Brown problem,” he said during an interview Monday with CNN. “This is a national problem — a symptom that happened here in Rhode Island.”

Authorities are expected to release new footage Tuesday with images of the man believed to be the shooter, Neronha said.

So far, the police have released several videos showing a man walking down a sidewalk near campus, before and after the shooting. None of those videos have clearly shown the face of the man, who the police describe as about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a stocky build.

The person detained Sunday was a 24-year-old Wisconsin man. Officials released him after they determined that he was not connected to the shooting.

The attack occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday during a final exam review for an economics class.

Brown has canceled all remaining classes and exams for the fall semester.

The two Brown students killed in the attack were MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old from Virginia whose family immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2011, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old from Alabama who was a talented pianist and vice president of the university’s Republican Club.

Both the Providence Police and Brown University have said that security on and around the campus has been increased since the shooting. Aside from candlelit vigils to remember the victims, the neighborhoods near the university have been quieter than usual for the past few days, with many Brown students having left early for winter break.

Investigators have been poring over video footage in an attempt to track the shooter’s movements, Neronha said Tuesday. “So we’re making progress, and we’re just going to have to keep at it until we have enough evidence to pull someone into custody and bring some charges.”