Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said Sunday morning that law enforcement officers detained a person of interest in the Saturday afternoon shooting at Brown University. The city lifted the shelter-in-place order at 7 a.m. for the area surrounding the campus.
The shooting, which happened around 4 p.m. on Saturday, left two students dead and nine other students injured.
Eight people remained hospitalized as of 7 a.m. Sunday, Smiley said. Seven were listed as being in stable condition and one person in “critical but stable condition.”
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez refused to share any details about the person in custody or where they were taken into custody, saying the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. He stressed that federal, state and local law enforcement worked together through the night to investigate the shooting and locate the person of interest.
“The people of Providence should breathe a little easier this morning,” Smiley said.
Smiley said people should expect to see a heightened police presence around Providence today, but said that does not indicate additional threats.
“We don’t want that to be alarming,” Smiley said, “we want that to be reassuring.”
A Brown University professor of Economics told Ocean State Media on Saturday that the shooting happened in a review session for her Principles of Economics class. Rachel Friedberg did not witness the shooting, but came to Rhode Island Hospital to comfort her students, and spoke with her teaching assistant, who was present at the shooting.
