PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) — Police in Rhode Island said Sunday that they had a suspect in custody after a shooting that rocked the Brown University campus during final exams, leaving two people dead and nine others wounded.
Col. Oscar Perez, chief of the Providence police, confirmed at a news conference that the detained suspect was in their 30s and that authorities are not currently searching for anyone else. He declined to say where the suspect was arrested and whether the person was connected to the university.
The shooting erupted Saturday afternoon in the engineering building of the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, during final exams. Hundreds of police officers had scoured the Brown University campus along with nearby neighborhoods and pored over video in pursuit of a shooter who opened fire in a classroom.
Armed with a handgun, the shooter fired more than 40 9mm rounds, according to a law enforcement official. Authorities as of Sunday morning hadn’t recovered a gun but did recover two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
Providence leaders warned that residents will notice a heavier police presence on Sunday. Many local businesses announced they would remain closed and expressed shock and heartbreak as the community continued to process the news of the shooting.
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“Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us,” Brown University President Christina Paxson said at the news conference. “Our community’s strong and we’ll get through it, but it’s devastating.”
Christina Paxson, President of Brown University, speaks during a press conference after a shooting on campus that left two dead and at least 8 injured on December 13, 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Libby O’Neill/Getty Images/AFP)
Surveillance video released by police showed the suspect, dressed in black, calmly walking away from the scene.
Some witnesses told police the suspect may have been wearing a camouflage mask, Providence Police Deputy Chief Timothy O’Hara said.
Earlier, Paxson said she was told 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting but it was not clear if the victim was a student, she said.
The search for the shooter paralyzed the campus, the nearby neighborhoods filled with stately brick homes and the downtown in Rhode Island’s capital city until a shelter-in-place order was lifted early Sunday.
Help find this Person of Interest.
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— FBI (@FBI) December 14, 2025
Streets normally bustling with activity on weekends were eerily quiet. Officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness center where they waited. Others arrived at the shelter on buses without jackets or any belongings.
Mayor advised people to stay home
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom. Outer doors of the building were unlocked but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
Smiley was emotional as he discussed the city’s efforts to prepare for a mass shooting.
“We all, intellectually, knew it could happen anywhere, including here, but that’s not the same as it happening in our community, and so this is an incredibly upsetting and emotional time for Providence, for Brown, for all of us,” he said. “It’s not something that we should have to train for, but we have.”
Nine people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where one was in critical condition. Six required intensive care but were not getting worse and two were stable, hospital spokesperson Kelly Brennan said.
Exams were underway during shooting
Engineering design exams were underway when the shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department.
The building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices, according to the university’s website.
A law enforcement official walks past articles of clothing on a sidewalk near an entrance to Brown University, December 13, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island, during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side.
Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she sheltered for several hours.
Eva Erickson, a doctoral candidate who was the runner-up earlier this year on the CBS reality competition show “Survivor,” said she left her lab in the engineering building 15 minutes before shots rang out.
The engineering and thermal science student shared candid moments on “Survivor” as the show’s first openly autistic contestant. She was locked down in the campus gym following the shooting and shared on social media that the only other member of her lab who was present was safely evacuated.
Law enforcement officials carry rifles while walking on a street in a neighborhood near Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, December 13, 2025 during the investigation of a shooting. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as armed officers surrounded his dorm.
Students hid under desks
Students in a nearby lab turned off the lights and hid under desks after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.
Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.
“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.
Brown, the seventh oldest higher education institution in the US, is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. Tuition, housing and other fees run to nearly $100,000 per year, according to the university.
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