2 dead, 8 injured in Brown University shooting

All right, we're joined now by CBS News reporter Logan Hall. He is on the scene there in Providence. We just heard from the mayor saying that there's a lot of fear and anxiety. Logan, what are you hearing in terms of the students and just that community right now?

Yeah that's right. Good evening. We got here about an hour ago, and this campus is eerily quiet right now. Something that's very clear in driving through the streets of this campus is that students are taking this shelter in place order very seriously. They are listening to campus police and Providence police when they tell them that this shooter is still at large and that they need to remain sheltered in place. So as we've been driving around, we haven't really seen any students. We haven't really seen any signs of life whatsoever, as everybody here on this campus is locked down at the moment.

I heard some other interviews of students just being surprised, who were either in the building or around the building. How are you all keeping safe at this time, knowing, as you just said, that street or those areas are very quiet, eerily quiet?

Yeah. I think something that was shocking to hear from the Brown provost just moments ago in that press conference was that this happened inside of an engineering building where final exams were taking place at the time of the shooting. So for these students, this is something that was incredibly shocking. It was something that they were not expecting, especially when they're in the middle of final exam studies, prepping for tests and going about what is supposed to be a very normal time of year here at Brown University.

Yeah, a very fluid situation, again, as the mayor stated. Logan Hall, thank you so much for checking in with us. I want to turn now to CBS News security contributor Sam Vinograd. Sam, we've been here before. What can you tell us just about what happens now with this investigation? It sounds like there's still a lot to learn and it's very early. The mayor asking for patience as they try to figure things out.

Well, we've just been here too many times before. As a parent, this is just horrific to begin to wrap our heads around. At this point, we are still in the threat-mitigation period. There is still very clearly an active threat to the public based on the fact that the suspect is not yet in custody. What that means is that at this moment, various law enforcement partners at the campus, city, state, and federal level-- we know the FBI is also involved-- are working to identify who the suspect or suspects are. That will likely include eyewitness interviews with individuals who may have seen the suspect, combing video and aerial footage of the individual, both within the building-- ostensibly, there are video cameras there-- and when this individual fled, and from there trying to make an identification. We may at some point see a request for the public to assist with that. Unfortunately, having been involved in the aftermath of these kinds of horrific campus security events, we also know that there are reunification points being set up and various communications between the university, campus officials, administrators, parents and students to try to identify who was hurt and who is safe and who is not. So that's all ongoing at this time.

And Sam, just help us understand, because we see all the images, the FBI, all these different law enforcement officials are there. This happened just after 4:00. Are you surprised that they're not a little bit closer to having a suspect in custody and they're asking for this patience? I mean, it is a big university, over 200 buildings, I think. 150 square acres. But just give us a sense of how quickly sometimes these things come together, and how this could be something that we're talking about even tomorrow in terms of maybe not having a suspect in custody.

I'm not surprised. Unfortunately, every incident is very different, particularly if this individual had his or her appearance camouflaged, was wearing a mask, was in unidentifiable clothing. Identifying the suspect could take a long time. We've seen that play out in other investigations, like the assassination of the UnitedHealthCare CEO, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and more. So this could take time. I am heartened to see the various levels of law enforcement, federal, state, local, and campus, cooperating because each has unique expertise that can come to bear to try to identify the suspect, to try to ensure that the suspect acted alone and that there are no other associated threats to the public, and to try to keep everybody safe. So when we get an ID on the suspect, there's really no way of knowing when that will happen. But we do know all the law enforcement partners involved have different assets and techniques they can use to identify the individual or individuals involved.

Yeah. And I do know at that news conference there was mention of someone as a male in all black, possibly, that they were looking for. Sam, Logan, thank you guys so much for helping us understand what's happening at this hour. Our coverage will of course continue on CBS News 24/7. That's at cbsnews.com. This has been a CBS News Special Report. I'm Jericka Duncan in New York. [MUSIC PLAYING]