Authorities say they will release person of interest detained in Brown University shooting

A person of interest arrested after a shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine others will be released after an investigation led law enforcement in a “different direction,” officials said Sunday evening.

The revelation, made during a hastily arranged late-night news conference, represents a stunning turn in an investigation into the killings that rocked the Ivy League campus and came more than 12 hours after authorities announced they had arrested a person in connection with the attack.

This release means that the person responsible for the murder can remain at large.

“We know this has the potential to bring new anxiety to our community,” Mayor Brett Smiley said.

Saturday afternoon’s attack sparked hours of chaos on campus and surrounding Providence neighborhoods as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter and urged students and staff to shelter in place. The lockdown, which extended into the night, was lifted early Sunday, but authorities had not yet released information on a potential motive.

On Sunday morning, authorities arrested a person who two people familiar with the matter identified as a 24-year-old Wisconsin man. This individual, whose name has never been released by the authorities, is now released.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you go in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another and that’s exactly what happened over the last 24 hours,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said.

Col. Oscar Perez, Providence police chief, said Sunday afternoon that no one had been charged yet. Perez, who also said no one else was being sought, declined to say whether the person detained had any connection to Brown.

The person was arrested at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Providence, where police and FBI agents remained Sunday, blocking off a hallway with crime scene tape as they searched the area.

The shooting occurred at one of the busiest times in the university calendar, when final exams were underway. Brown canceled all remaining classes, exams, assignments and projects for the semester and told students they could leave campus, emphasizing the scale of the disruption and the severity of the attack.

As police scoured the area for the shooter, many students remained barricaded in their rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves. One video showed students in a library shaking and grimacing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to evacuate the building.

University President Christina Paxson cried as she described her conversations with students on campus and at the hospital.

“They are amazing and they support each other,” she said at a news conference. “There’s just a lot of gratitude.”

The gunman opened fire in a classroom in the engineering building, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun, a law enforcement official told AP. Two handguns were recovered when the subject was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, the official said. One of the guns was equipped with a laser sight that projects a dot to make targeting easier, said the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

One of the nine injured students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.

Durham Academy, a private K-12 school located in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was seriously injured. The school said her parents were with her.

“Our school community is rallying around Kendall, his classmates and loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days to come,” the school said.

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