At least 2 killed, several wounded in shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island, police say; manhunt on for suspect

At least two people were killed and nine more wounded in a shooting Saturday afternoon in a building on the campus of Brown University in Rhode Island, authorities said. The suspect has not been identified and is still at large. 

Authorities said that the shooting was reported in the Barus & Holley engineering building a little after 4 p.m. local time. The shooting occurred in a first-floor classroom, Providence Deputy Police Chief Tim O'Hara told reporters. The school said final exams were taking place in the building at the time of the shooting.   

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a news conference that eight of the wounded were taken to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition. The hospital later said in a statement that six of those patients were in "critical but stable condition," one was in critical condition, and another was in stable condition. 

In a follow-up news conference late Saturday night, Smiley said that a ninth victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries when they "learned that they had received fragments from a shooting that had occurred near them." That victim did not sustain a gunshot wound and is expected to make a full recovery, Smiley said. 

Brown University President Christina H. Paxson told reporters in the second briefing that all the victims, those killed and wounded, were students. 

Smiley said that no arrests had been made, and a shelter-in-place was in place for the Brown University area. No weapons have been recovered, O'Hara said. A university alert told students to lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice.   

O'Hara told reporters the male suspect escaped from the engineering building following the shooting. It was unclear how he had entered the building, officials said, but Smiley noted that the outer doors of Barus & Holley were unlocked because the exams were taking place.

"In a building like that on a weekend, there are a lot of things going on," Brown Provost Francis Doyle said. "Study sessions, student groups meeting, there are research labs in that building. So we don't have detailed knowledge of exactly what was happening, but we're working with law enforcement."

Providence police, late Saturday night, released security video of a person believed to be the suspect leaving Barus & Holley. Smiley said that investigators do not yet know if the gunman was a student. 

In the video, the suspect was wearing dark gray or black clothing and his face was not visible, O'Hara said during the second news conference. The video does not show a firearm. No weapon has been recovered.

"Some of the witnesses also told us that he may have been wearing a camouflage gray mask," O'Hara said, adding that investigators are unsure if there is video showing the suspect inside Barus & Holley. 

School public safety had initially reported that a suspect had been taken into custody before retracting that statement. 

"There was an individual who was preliminary thought to be involved, but was later determined to have no involvement," Smiley said. 

Over 400 local and federal law enforcement officers were in the area assisting in the investigation, Smiley said.   

President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that he had been briefed on the shooting. 

"God bless the victims and the families of the victims!" Mr. Trump said. The president also initially wrote that a suspect was in custody, but in a follow-up post, wrote, "The Brown University Police reversed their previous statement — The suspect is NOT in custody."

"The unthinkable has happened," Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in the earlier news conference. McKee later told reporters he had spoken by phone to Mr. Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel.     

The FBI confirmed in a statement to CBS News that it was assisting "our law enforcement partners in Rhode Island with any and all available resources."  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also posted on X that it was sending agents. 

Pat Milton, Richard Esposito and Anna Schecter contributed to this report.

• Shooting
• Rhode Island