Police, fire and rescue personnel gather near the scene of a shooting at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. A gunman shot 10 people, killing two of them, on the campus Saturday afternoon, local officials said. Hours after the attack, no one was in custody, and the university and parts of Providence remained on lockdown. (Mark Arsenault/The New York Times)
- A person of interest was in custody on Sunday in connection with a shooting at Brown University that killed two people and injured nine others, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, said.
- Seven were in a stable condition, one was in critical but stable condition, and another had been released, Mayor Brett Smiley said
- The shooting occurred Saturday afternoon inside a final exam review for a principles of economics class on campus.
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A person of interest was in custody on Sunday in connection with a shooting at Brown University that killed two people and injured nine others, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, said.
Of the nine students who were injured and taken to hospital, seven were in a stable condition, one was in critical but stable condition, and another had been released, Mayor Brett Smiley said Sunday.
The university said a campus lockdown had been lifted early Sunday.
Here’s what to know about the attack.
What happened?
The shooting occurred Saturday afternoon inside a final exam review for a principles of economics class on campus, Christina Paxson, the Brown University president, said Sunday. The students inside were taking final exams or seeking quiet spots to study.
The shooting was first reported about 4 p.m. An alert sent by the university told students and faculty members to lock their doors, silence their phones and stay hidden because of reports of an active shooter. Many students hid in dorms, while others took shelter in the basement of a popular tea shop.
Owen Fick, a junior at Brown, described seeing heavily armed police officers in protective gear running down the street, before he rushed to a dorm room to shelter in place.
“There were a lot of ambulances, a lot of cop cars, fire trucks,” he said. “They just had a lot of gurneys.”
What do we know about the person of interest?
The person of interest detained by law enforcement is in their 30s, said Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of police in Providence. Authorities did not give any additional information about the person they had detained on Sunday.
On Saturday, authorities released a basic description of the suspect: a male dressed in black. He “could be in his 30s, but we’re not positive,” said Timothy O’Hara, the deputy police chief in Providence.
The police released a video of the suspect. They said that it was not clear how the gunman entered the engineering building, but that he had exited the building on the Hope Street side. They do not know what kind of weapon was used.
On Saturday night, the Brown campus resembled a fortified outpost as over 400 law enforcement officers swarmed the area. Some searched for the gunman by shining flashlights into parked cars.
How have officials responded?
President Donald Trump said on social media that he had been briefed on the shooting and that the FBI was on the scene.
Gov. Dan McKee of Rhode Island described the shooting as “an unthinkable nightmare” in a brief interview. “This is something that’s going to impact families and people’s lives for a lifetime,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Yan Zhuang, By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Mark Arsenault and Mitch Smith/Mark Arsenault
c.2025 The New York Times Company




