Brown University Shooting: FBI Offers $50K Reward as Search Continues for Suspect

By Luis Fieldman

Source masslive.com

Officials released new videos and photos Monday night of a person of interest linked to Saturday’s deadly shooting at Brown University.

The person is described as approximately 5 feet 8 inches with a “stocky build.” The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the “identification, arrest and conviction of the individual.”

The latest images depict a person of interest dressed in dark clothing, a beanie and a face mask walking down Waterman Street near the university, roughly around 2 p.m., approximately two hours before the shooting on Saturday.

Providence police previously released two videos of a person of interest in the shooting. The department’s chief of police, Col. Oscar L. Perez, Jr., said during the press conference that authorities believe the man in the photos is the same person shown in the previously released videos.

“We’re at the 49th hour, and there’s no one that wants to put this individual in handcuffs more than us,” Perez said during a Monday night press conference.

Here’s where the investigation stands as the manhunt continues for a fourth day:

Suspect considered ‘armed and dangerous’

Law enforcement described the suspect in Saturday’s shooting as armed and dangerous.

“We’re asking everyone in Rhode Island and beyond to review the new images of the suspect, share them on social media, and come forward if you have any information,“ Ted Docks, special agent in charge of FBI Boston said on Monday night.

Individuals can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL- FBI or the Providence Police Department at 401-272-3121. Tips can also be electronically submitted at tips.fbi.gov.

Docks said the FBI is also doubling down on its efforts to obtain images and video of the shooter. Those can be submitted online at fbi.gov/brownuniversityshooting.

Officials work to reconstruct person’s movements

Law enforcement agents are tracking down leads, canvassing neighborhoods and processing the scene of the shooting, according to Docks.

“Folks from our lab, from Quantico, are documenting the trajectories of the bullets to reconstruct the scene,” Docks said at a press conference Monday night. “It’s painstaking work, and we are asking the public to be patient.”

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that investigators are working on reconstructing the man’s movements before and after the shooting, which took place close to 4 p.m.

“We’re learning more about his movements as we gather additional video evidence, and that video evidence has been coming in at a much greater degree than it was 12, 24, 36 hours ago,” Neronha said.

“The sooner we can identify that person, the sooner we can, I think, blow this case open,” Neronha said on Monday night. “But that’s work that has to happen in the next 24 to 36 hours.”

The new videos and photos were obtained by investigators on Monday and distributed to the public, according to the Providence police chief.

University urges anyone at Brown’s Barus and Holley building to come forward

University officials asked anyone who was in the Barus and Holley building — where the shooting took place — on Friday or Saturday to contact Providence police to arrange for an interview immediately.

“Even what seems like an incidental detail may ultimately be helpful in law enforcement’s efforts to protect our community,” officials wrote in a statement.

The statement also said reports circulating about other hostile intruders or violent incidents near or on campus were unfounded.

“While the Brown Department of Public Safety and Providence Police received and responded to several calls about reported threats, each was immediately determined to be baseless,” the statement said. “In each instance, law enforcement was on scene within minutes or seconds and found no credible evidence of any new or ongoing threat to the Brown community.”

Community on edge as the shooter remains at large

The community in Providence remains on edge as law enforcement tracks down the shooter.

“At this moment, there’s a great amount of fear, in addition to sorrow, for the loss of two young lives who should be with us here today, and those recovering in the hospital,” Rhode Island Congressman Gabe Amo told CNN.

“It is something that no community wants to experience, this horrific mass shooting, and the fact that someone hasn’t been caught, it does inspire fear,” Amo said.

Near Barus and Holley, two PhD students at Brown, Akshay Nagar, 26, and Eric Barrett, 28, walked near the Barus and Holley building on Monday afternoon.

Both described the surreal feeling of learning about a shooting taking place on campus.

“Even though we were OK, we were up late, checking in on our friends and seeing how everyone was doing. It was really stressful,” Barrett said.

“It’s just surreal,” Nagar said. “I don’t feel patently unsafe right now. I would guess that it’s fairly unlikely that (the suspect) would come back exactly here and try again, but it’s also kind of just shocking that ... we’re in the middle of a city, and somehow, there’s just no footage.

“Right now, it feels equal parts disconcerting and stressful,” Nagar said.

In addition to the photos and videos shared on Monday, officials released a 10-second video clip on Saturday of a male dressed in black turning a street corner, but the person’s face is not visible.

“The videos at Brown in the building have been examined, and at this time, we have no additional actionable information from the video that has been reviewed from the building,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told The Washington Post.

What to know about the shooting

Gunfire erupted on the first floor of Brown University’s Barus and Holley engineering and physics building around 4 p.m. on Dec. 13 during a review session for an economics exam.

Brown University College Republicans has identified one of the students who was killed as Ella Cook, the organisation’s vice president. The other victim was Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, according to NBC News, which cited the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As of Monday night, one of the injured students was in critical but stable condition at a hospital, and seven were hospitalised but in stable condition. One has been released from a hospital.

Following the shooting, the gunman left the university’s engineering building on the Hope Street side, officials said.

A massive law enforcement response soon flooded Rhode Island to search for the shooter as the school and the surrounding community went into a lockdown that lasted more than 12 hours.

Officials announced that a person of interest — identified only as a man in his 30s — was in custody early Sunday morning. But by the following morning, authorities confirmed that the man had been released.

On Monday, the Providence mayor told Good Morning America that, after collecting more evidence, authorities determined that the man should be released. The mayor did not specify what evidence led to the man’s release, and officials said Monday night that he had been cleared as a potential suspect in the shooting.

“To be clear, we’ve never stopped our investigation,” Smiley told Good Morning America. “Providence police and our partners and state police, the FBI and others, have continuously run down leads and work this case beyond the person of interest who had been detained yesterday.”

______________________

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC.

Visit masslive.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.