Updated Dec 15, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Officials releasing person detained in Brown University mass shooting

Rebecca Falconer

Flowers and candles are seen at a makeshift memorial outside the Barus & Holley engineering building on the campus of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island on December 14. — A makeshift memorial outside the Barus & Holley engineering building at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Dec. 14. Photo: Bing Guan/AFP via Getty Images

A "person of interest" detained in the Brown University mass shooting was being released, officials said late Sunday

The big picture: Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said at a Sunday night briefing on plans to release the sole person detained in connection with the attack that Brown confirmed killed two students and wounded nine others that evidence in the investigation "now points in a different direction."

Officials acknowledged at the briefing community concerns as police search for a suspect in Saturday's shooting. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley noted that news of the release of the man who was detained as a person of interest "is likely to cause fresh anxiety."
However, Brown University said in a statement late Sunday that local police "have advised they do not believe there is any immediate threat to Brown or the local community."

Zoom in: Police had earlier released a security video police of someone investigators believe is a person of interest in the shooting.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at the Sunday night briefing there's "no basis" to believe the man whom police had detained was this person.

Go deeper: 2 killed, 9 injured in Brown University shooting

Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional details throughout.

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Officials releasing person detained in Brown University mass shooting

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