Brown University shooting: Gunman suspect detained after 13 hours of tension on campus

A man from Wisconsin is in custody in connection with the attack on one of America’s Ivy League universities that killed two people and injured nine others, according to two people familiar with the investigation. The man has not been charged in connection with the shooting, and the authorities have said nothing about any potential motive or link to the university.

The suspect is in his 20s, according to local officials, who have not yet named him. He was taken into custody early Sunday, local time, in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles from Brown’s campus in Providence. The arrest ended a terrifying night for students who had barricaded themselves in libraries, cafeterias and dorms as heavily armed police conducted a sprawling manhunt.

As they hunkered down, students learned that two of their classmates had been killed and nine others wounded in an attack at an engineering building. For hours, they were implored to stay inside and lock their doors as the search for the shooter played out across Providence, Rhode Island.

Finally, not long before sunrise, and more than 13 hours after the first calls of gunfire, the all-clear came. A person of interest was in custody. Students could go home.

The shooting at Brown, on a busy weekend filled with final exams and last-minute study sessions, shattered the university’s end-of-semester buzz and left students and employees shaken and reeling. Spencer Yang, who was shot in the leg when the gunman burst into a review session for an economics exam, described helping a fellow student who was seriously injured as they hid behind seats.

“I handed him my water,” Mr Yang, who is from New York, said in an interview from the hospital where he was being treated. “He wasn’t able to respond that well. He was just there nodding and making noise.”

Of the nine students who were injured and taken to a hospital, seven were in stable condition, one was in critical but stable condition, and another had been released, officials said Sunday. The names of the victims were not immediately released.

The person of interest was in his 20s, according to Colonel Oscar Perez, the chief of the Providence police. Local authorities, who had previously released a video showing a possible suspect in dark clothing walking away from the shooting scene, did not share more details about the person they detained, and no charges had been announced as of Sunday afternoon.

“We’re in the process of collecting evidence and seizing items that we need to seize, search locations that we need to search,” Col. Perez said.

Kash Patel, the FBI director, said in a social media post that federal agents and local officers detained that person at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, based on a tip from the Providence police.

Officials said the gunman entered the unlocked Barus and Holley engineering building, a popular study spot, and began shooting in a classroom on the first floor shortly after 4pm, Saturday.

Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant for that economics study session, said he had been wrapping up when he heard screaming and gunfire. Some students ran out a door, he said, while Mr Oduro and others took cover behind a desk.

“The students in the middle were impacted the most,” he said, describing a large classroom with almost stadium-like seating. “Many of them were lying there and they were not moving. I have no idea how many.”

Mr Oduro said the man was wearing a face mask and shouted something, though he was not exactly sure what. Officials said the attacker then fled onto the streets of Providence as police officers and firefighters rushed toward the crime scene. Emergency scanner audio posted online described police officers and medical personnel from across Rhode Island scrambling to respond.

For hours, authorities gave only the slimmest description of the gunman: a man, possibly in his 30s, wearing dark clothes, who escaped before police could confront him. Providence officials told people on and around the Brown campus to shelter in place as officers combed through the streets, shining flashlights in cars and escorting students to safety.

On Sunday, as students began to move around campus again, university leaders announced that final exams and projects for the rest of the semester would not go forward as scheduled. They offered students food, support and help retrieving any belongings that they had left behind during the search.

The attack came during an already tumultuous time at Brown. The university faced criticism from supporters of Israel for reaching a deal with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in 2024, and then came under scrutiny by the Trump administration this year. After the federal government moved to pause hundreds of millions of dollars of research funding, Brown agreed to spend $US50 million ($75m) on workforce development programs in Rhode Island and to align certain policies with the Trump administration’s agenda.

The provost, Francis J. Doyle III, said Sunday that students were free to go home for the semester.

He said he knew that there “will be many academic concerns about the implications of not holding classes and exams as scheduled,” but that “for the moment, we encourage everyone to focus on their own safety and well-being.”

Mayor Brett Smiley of Providence said he met with several wounded students and their families at a hospital. One of them, he said, told him that an active shooter drill from high school proved helpful during the attack Saturday.

“We shouldn’t have to do active shooter drills, but it helped,” Smiley said. “And the reason it helped, and the reason we do these drills, is because it’s so damn frequent.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company