PinnedPolice officers went door to door through the streets of Rhode Island’s capital city on Monday afternoon in search of video footage that might help them track down the gunman who killed two students and injured nine others at Brown University this weekend.Mayor Brett Smiley of Providence, R.I., said officials had no way of knowing if the killer was still in the city. The police have released two brief videos of the possible shooter — whose face is not visible in the footage — in the hopes that someone might recognize him by his gait or dark clothing.A 24-year-old Wisconsin man who was held for nearly all of Sunday was released late in the night, after officials determined that he was “not a person of interest at all,” according to Attorney General Peter F. Neronha of Rhode Island.The move left the city on edge, and false alerts have roiled the Brown campus and communities nearby since the manhunt resumed.On College Hill, the neighborhood where the gunman might have fled after opening fire on an economics final study group, many parents stayed home with their children because some schools were closed. College students carried luggage, scrambling to leave campus because they didn’t feel safe at Brown.The turn in the investigation late Sunday came some 20 hours after the authorities detained the suspect and lifted a lockdown on the Brown campus. Law enforcement officials have not named any other suspects or discussed potential motives.Here’s what we’re covering:The search: Officials released a second brief video of the possible suspect on Monday, in addition to one made public on Saturday night. “We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community,” Mayor Smiley said after the suspect was released late Sunday, adding that officials had not received “any credible or specific threats to the Providence community.”The attack: The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday during a final exam review for an economics class. Joseph Oduro, 21, a teaching assistant, said he had been wrapping up the session when a man with a face mask and a rifle burst into the classroom. The man shouted something that Mr. Oduro could not make out and opened fire. Read more ›A stellar student: One of the people killed in the attack, MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old from Virginia, had earned a scholarship to attend Brown. His friends and relatives remembered him as extroverted, helpful and bright. Mr. Umurzokov and his family are naturalized citizens who arrived in the United States in 2011 from Uzbekistan. Read more ›A bright sophomore: The other person who was killed, Ella Cook, 19, was a talented pianist who spoke French and joined the French Honor Society in high school. At Brown, she became the vice president of the Republican Club. Her friends said that she was studious, humble and kind, and the pastor of her church described her as a “bright light.” Read more ›Dec. 15, 2025, 4:53 p.m. ETMayor Brett Smiley of Providence said in a brief interview that “obviously there’s still anxiety” in his city, but “I think spirits have lifted a little bit throughout the day” as residents have seen increased police patrols and investigators canvassing for more video evidence.Dec. 15, 2025, 4:44 p.m. ETFlowers left on the campus of Brown University. Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesAdam Greenman, the president and chief executive of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, was at home with his family on Saturday evening when he heard about a shooting at the nearby campus of Brown University.The Jewish Alliance was hosting a Hanukkah concert that was already underway, but its building was a mile from campus and everyone was safe, he said. Still, Mr. Greenman decided to delay Sunday morning’s opening of the building.Then, on Sunday morning, he woke up to still more devastating news: There had been a mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, this one targeting a Jewish holiday celebration.“It’s a tough time to be Jewish right now,” he said. “It’s tough to be a Rhode Islander right now.”The Jewish Alliance building opened its doors on Sunday at 10 a.m., three hours later than usual, with enhanced security in place not because of what had happened nearby at Brown, but because the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach had been labeled an antisemitic terror attack.The back-to-back attacks, on his community in Providence and the Jewish community in Australia, “compounded the sadness,” Mr. Greenman said. “It was like a second gut punch.”Mr. Greenman attended a vigil at Lippitt Memorial Park on Sunday, which was also the first night of Hanukkah. He said it strengthened his resolve to continue to gather, safely, in the days to come.“This is a time where being in community is so important, where the power of Rhode Island and the smallness of Rhode Island really shines through,” he said.Dec. 15, 2025, 3:32 p.m. ETLaw enforcement officers from local, state and federal agencies fanned out Monday afternoon several blocks from where the shooting took place. Small groups of plain-clothed officers, some in parkas and others in tactical gear, knocked on residents’ doors and were quietly let in. Some homes had outward facing cameras. Others officers were closer to the scene of the shooting.Dec. 15, 2025, 3:20 p.m. ETMembers of the F.B.I.’s evidence response team kick aside snow, searching for clues near where footage showed the supposed shooter walking away from the scene on Saturday.VideoCreditCredit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesDec. 15, 2025, 3:14 p.m. ETOn Sunday morning in Providence, R.I., the police had detained a “person of interest” in connection to the shooting at Brown University. By late evening, they backpedaled.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesIn the early hours of Sunday morning, the manhunt for a gunman who killed two Brown University students seemed to be over. The police had detained a “person of interest” and lifted a shelter-in-place advisory that had been in effect while the gunman was at large.By late evening, though, the authorities were backpedaling. The man, whose name had leaked to the news media by then, was released.So what is a person of interest, anyway?It is not an official legal term. But it can be used to describe someone who the authorities believe has important information about a crime — a witness, perhaps, or an accomplice. More often, a person of interest is really a suspect whom the police are not ready to call a suspect, for legal reasons or because some of the evidence has yet to be nailed down.Andrew Birrell, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he is always wary of the term person of interest because it “feels like an effort to dilute the amount of evidence you have to have to acquire the person of interest.”The fact that the shelter-in-place order was lifted when the man in Rhode Island was apprehended was “an absolute sign that they were sure that he is the person responsible,” said Maria Haberfeld, a policing expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.She added that as it turned out, this was “an error in judgment.”After a short video believed to show the gunman was released, the F.B.I. received a tip that led to the man, the authorities said. Gov. Daniel McKee of Rhode Island referred to him as “a suspect.”But Chief Oscar Perez of the Providence Police Department was more circumspect, declining to answer questions such as where the man had been caught and whether a weapon had been found. When the chief was asked about the man “in custody,” he was tapped on the shoulder by someone who whispered, “Custody is not the right word.” Chief Perez corrected the reporter, using the word “detained.”“Those words, and how we choose those words when we’re talking about an investigation, matter,” said Rhode Island’s attorney general, Peter F. Neronha, at a news conference announcing that the man had been released. “And what it means here is that certainly there was some degree of evidence that pointed to this individual. But that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed.”A person can be detained for questioning based on a reasonable belief that they are armed and dangerous. Someone who has been detained by the police more than briefly may have the freedom to leave if they are not placed under arrest (though research shows they are unlikely to exercise it).If a person is in custody, on the other hand, they must be advised of their Miranda rights, including their right to remain silent. It generally means they have been arrested, which requires probable cause.The early hours following a shooting, especially a high-profile one, can be full of misinformation and false reports. After the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down during an appearance on a college campus this fall, two people were questioned and released, while the F.B.I. director announced, incorrectly, that a suspect was in custody.In Providence, the authorities defended their shift in direction, saying it was just the way investigations go. That is likely to be cold comfort for the person of interest, whose name and photograph were widely disseminated while news reporters published facts about his work history, mental health and social media posts.Premature identifications can ruin lives, as in the case of Richard A. Jewell, a security guard who helped shepherd dozens of people out of danger before a bombing at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but then was named as a suspect in a news report that did not cite a source.It was years before the actual bomber, Eric Rudolph, was caught, and by then, he had committed three more bombings.In Rhode Island on Monday, it became clear how quickly law enforcement officials can change direction when the clues lead them elsewhere. Mr. Neronha said that the person who had been held in connection with the shooting on Sunday was “not a person of interest at all at this point.”Dec. 15, 2025, 2:59 p.m. ETVideoPolice Release Second Video of Brown University GunmanAuthorities in Providence, R.I., released a second video from security camera footage of a possible shooting suspect walking down the sidewalk on Saturday.CreditCredit...Providence Police Department, via FacebookThe authorities in Providence, R.I., have not released video showing the face of the gunman who opened fire on students at Brown University this weekend, killing two, and have publicly revealed only two short clips showing the man who they believe could be the killer.Police officers were going door to door in neighborhoods close to campus on Monday afternoon, searching for additional video that might provide more information about the man who opened fire on an economics review session on Saturday, killing two students and injuring nine others.The first footage of the possible suspect walking away from campus on Saturday afternoon was filmed from a CCTV camera affixed to a corner of a green Colonial-style building built in 1867 called the John A. Mitchell House.On Monday afternoon, the Providence police released a second video. It was taken from a distance, and it shows a person in dark clothing walking at a normal pace down a sidewalk. Like the first video released on Saturday night, this footage does not show the person’s face.The authorities have asked anyone who might have more video, from doorbell cameras or security feeds, to provide it to the Providence police.Dec. 15, 2025, 2:56 p.m. ETPhilip EilReporting from ProvidenceMiriam Davison, an 18-year-old freshman from Los Angeles, was wheeling a suitcase and carrying a guitar case on Monday afternoon as she walked near Brown’s Main Green to meet a friend and head to the airport for a flight home. She described her mood as “sad and conflicted and bittersweet, because it’s a beautiful day but I know there are people that are no longer with us.”A classical guitarist who could not get back to her dorm room after the shooting until about 4 a.m. on Sunday, Davison added, “I think it’s going to be difficult to return in January, knowing what has happened. I think people will have a different impression of this campus. Me, for one, I’m going to be a bit more scared to walk around.”Dec. 15, 2025, 2:34 p.m. ETFalse alarms have roiled the Brown campus — and much of Providence and other parts of Rhode Island — since the manhunt for the killer resumed last night. The police checked out reports of an armed man at a mall in Warwick early this morning, to no avail. “Everyone’s on edge,” said Theo Coben, 19, a Brown sophomore who took cover in a campus bathroom Sunday night after social media reports that shots had been fired.Dec. 15, 2025, 1:56 p.m. ETAttorney General Peter F. Neronha of Rhode Island said no one was in custody in connection with the shooting as of Monday afternoon. He said the Wisconsin man who was held by the police for most of Sunday “is not a person of interest at all at this point.”Dec. 15, 2025, 1:04 p.m. ETProvidence police officers are going door to door in neighborhoods close to campus, the department said on Facebook, requesting video footage that might help them in their attempts to identify a suspect in the shooting.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesDec. 15, 2025, 12:53 p.m. ETDurham Academy in North Carolina said in a statement that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, had been injured in the shooting, and was in critical but stable condition at a Providence hospital. The statement cited her parents, who were by her bedside. “Our school community is rallying around Kendall, her classmates and her loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days ahead,” the school said in a statement.Dec. 15, 2025, 12:29 p.m. ETOn College Hill, the Providence neighborhood where the gunman apparently fled after the shooting, many parents are home with their children this morning because some schools are closed. Most stores and coffee shops are open, but foot traffic is low on Thayer Street, the commercial boulevard that runs through Brown’s campus. Students are carrying luggage as they leave. An international student I spoke with couldn’t go home right away, but is staying with friends off-campus because he did not feel safe.Dec. 15, 2025, 11:54 a.m. ETBrown University canceled exams and sent students home after a shooting in a study session on Saturday afternoon.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesWith the Brown University shooter still at large, and no information about a motive in an attack that killed two students over the weekend, schools up and down New England were grappling with fear and uncertainty on Monday.Several private schools in the Providence, R.I., area canceled classes on Monday. Public schools in the area stayed open, but with a heightened police presence. At the University of Rhode Island, about 30 miles away in South Kingstown, in-person exams were canceled.Officials said there were no known threats to schools or colleges, but that decisions were made out of caution and in response to community concerns. On many campuses, students are wrapping up final exams this week.The shooting at Brown occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday, when a man with a face mask and a rifle burst into a classroom during a final-exam review session and opened fire.The news that a suspect detained by the authorities had been released and that officials did not know if the gunman was still in the city spiked new anxieties on Monday, in a geographically dense part of the country home to many universities and several Ivy League campuses all within driving distance.At Yale University in New Haven, Conn., about 100 miles southwest of Brown, the school said it would be requiring students and staff members to swipe IDs to get into most campus buildings and providing “increased, high visibility security coverage on campus throughout the examination period.” Security would also be extended through Hanukkah, after an attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, killed 15 people over the weekend.Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., was similarly beefing up security, with a focus on final exam locations. Harvard’s campus is just an hour from Brown, and there are close connections between the universities.David J. Deming, dean of Harvard College, described Brown as a “sister campus” at a vigil Sunday night, The Harvard Crimson reported.“Many of you have friends and family and members of the community who are affiliated with Brown or who are there now,” he said. “I know I do.”Dec. 15, 2025, 11:26 a.m. ETFlowers outside the Barus and Holley Building on the Brown University campus in Providence, R.I., on Sunday.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesGrowing up in suburban Mountain Brook, Ala., Ella Cook was many things: An accomplished pianist. A summer employee at a local ice cream shop. And a standout high school student, with the grades to win acceptance to Brown University.On Saturday afternoon, the college sophomore made her way to a review session for her upcoming exam in an introductory economics class. With about 60 other students who had gathered in the lecture hall, mostly freshmen, she spent two hours preparing for the test.Then, just as the session ended at 4 p.m., commotion erupted in the hall outside. A masked gunman entered the classroom, and students scrambled to escape. Ms. Cook, 19, was among those who did not make it out, elected officials confirmed in statements. She was one of two students killed in the shooting.On Sunday, as news of her death spread through her hometown, just east of Birmingham, glimmers of Ms. Cook’s gifts and potential could be glimpsed in the memories of people who knew her, and in social media posts by friends.Ella Cook.Credit...via LinkedInAt her church, Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, the Rev. Craig Smalley broke the news of Ms. Cook’s death to members of the congregation during a worship service on Sunday morning, describing her as “incredibly grounded and generous and faithful,” and “a bright light.”He offered prayers for her family, and paraphrased from the Bible’s book of John: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not and will not overcome it.”People gathered outside the Cook home in Mountain Brook on Sunday declined to speak to a reporter, and family members did not respond to phone calls and messages.Catherine Johnson, 21, knew Ms. Cook when both attended Mountain Brook High School, and said in an interview that she was “so smart, so studious and focused” and an exceptional pianist.When they competed together in a school pageant held every year to showcase student performances and raise money for school projects, Ms. Johnson said she was amazed by Ms. Cook’s abilities.“I remember hearing her play the piano for the first time when we had a dress rehearsal, and I was just shocked,” Ms. Johnson said.Another high school classmate marveled that Ms. Cook could be so accomplished, “yet so humble.”“Everyone who knew her would praise how kind she was,” Anna Bella Foster said in an e-mail.Ms. Johnson added that Ms. Cook was fluent in French and was a member of her high school’s French Honor Society. She worked last summer as a program assistant at an organization that runs summer study programs at universities around the world, according to her LinkedIn profile.She also worked at an ice-cream parlor in her hometown during her senior year in high school and the summer before she left for college, said Draiven Swaner, an employee of the shop, Mountain Brook Creamery.At Brown, Ms. Cook served as vice president of the college Republican Club. In a statement, Martin Bertao, president of College Republicans of America, said she was known for her “bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates.”One friend called Ms. Cook “an independent thinker” on TikTok, writing that “we had so many differences and we really educated each other. I loved her ideas.”Another TikTok user who knew Ms. Cook posted a video of her on a spotlit stage at her high school pageant, sitting at a piano wearing a long blue gown and sparkly earrings and playing a rhapsodic piece of music. When she finished, her hands lifted from the keyboard in a flourish as the audience erupted in cheers and applause.“I just can’t believe the most graceful, positive, smiley, intelligent, and kind girl in the world is gone,” her friend wrote, adding that Ms. Cook was due to come home for Christmas in a few days.“Beautiful and talented Ella,” he said. “You will never be forgotten.”Bryant K. Oden contributed reporting from Mountain Brook, Ala. Georgia Gee, Emily Cochrane, Christina Morales and Eduardo Medina also contributed.Dec. 15, 2025, 11:08 a.m. ETFlowers were left as part of a memorial on the campus of Brown University.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesMukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, was a stellar scholar, who was always willing to help his friends with homework and studying, according to his two sisters and a classmate.His family received confirmation from the university that he was killed in the shooting on Saturday during a review session on the Brown campus in Providence, R.I., his two sisters, Rukhsora Umurzokova, 22, and Samara Umurzokova, 15, said on Monday. He had been scheduled to return home for the winter break on Thursday.Speaking at their home in Midlothian, Va., outside Richmond, the sisters described their brother, the middle child, as “gentle” and “extroverted.”Mr. Umurzokov and his family, naturalized citizens, arrived in the United States in 2011 from Uzbekistan, where the U.S. embassy said it was mourning the loss of a “bright future.”Mr. Umurzokov chose Brown, his sisters said, because the financial aid package they offered would be the least burden on his parents. To get a new laptop, they added, he worked at a Wawa over the summer.A high school friend, Maddox Johnson, said that Mr. Umurzokov received specialized care for a medical condition when he was younger. His sisters said the condition was Chiari malformation, a condition where spinal fluid puts pressure on the brain and spinal cord.Mr. Johnson, 19, said his friend was intent on becoming a neurosurgeon to help children the way doctors once helped him. The two became close beginning in their sophomore year, he said.MukhammadAziz Umurzokov.Credit...Rukhsora UmurzakovaHe remembered how Mr. Umurzokov was a dedicated student, at one point lobbying administrators at Midlothian High School to provide a tougher physics class after he mastered the highest-level one it offered. (His sisters said he took more than a dozen Advanced Placement classes while at the school.)Mr. Johnson said that he and Mr. Umurzokov competed in Scholastic Bowl, a trivia-style academic competition, and spent time driving home from practice together. On one of those rides, Mr. Umurzokov turned on a country music song, surprising his friend with a budding interest.“He just got along with everyone,” Mr. Johnson said, recalling how he would help his peers with calculus. “He was the nicest guy. If you needed help, he’d help.”When Mr. Johnson and Mr. Umurzokov met up over Thanksgiving break, chatting as they wandered through a Target, Mr. Umurzokov had spoken about the new, supportive friend group he had found at school.“The last thing I said to him was, ‘I’m sure I’ll see you over winter break — probably at Target,’” Mr. Johnson said. “And unfortunately, that’s never going to happen.”Mr. Umurzokov ’s sisters said their family wants his body returned to Central Virginia quickly, so that they can follow their Muslim tradition — burial without delay — as closely as possible.Regarding the criminal investigation in Providence, Rukhsora Umurzokova said, “We’re just hoping that the process goes fast,” adding, “He’s already been through so much.”Dec. 15, 2025, 10:50 a.m. ETElla Cook, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Ala., was also killed in the Brown shooting, according to state officials, a pastor at her family’s church and friends who were mourning her. Cook was known for her accomplished piano playing and kind spirit, they said. The pastor, the Rev. Craig Smalley, told his congregation she was “a bright light.”Dec. 15, 2025, 10:23 a.m. ETTalib Reddick, the president of Brown’s Undergraduate Council of Students, described the last couple days as a roller coaster. He said he had heard from students who were concerned about “the fact that we were out and about on campus yesterday, and they didn’t have the actual shooter.”Dec. 15, 2025, 9:54 a.m. ETRich GrisetReporting from Midlothian, Va.Two sisters of a Brown student, MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, said on Monday morning that the university had told their family that their 18-year-old brother was one of the two students killed in the Saturday afternoon attack. Rukhsora Umurzokova, 22, and Samara Umurzokova, 15, described their brother, a scholarship student, as “gentle” and “extroverted.” He and his family are naturalized citizens from Uzbekistan now living in Virginia.Dec. 15, 2025, 9:40 a.m. ETThe University of Rhode Island said it was canceling in-person exams on Monday. “Importantly, there is no known threat to our campuses,” the university said in an online post, adding that “this decision follows consideration of concerns shared by members of our community.”Dec. 15, 2025, 9:22 a.m. ETIn East Providence, R.I., the police department said that officers would have an increased presence around schools on Monday. Officials described it as a proactive measure and said there was no known threat.Dec. 15, 2025, 9:21 a.m. ETBrown University said it had “more than doubled its staffing” in its Department of Public Safety. Increased patrols by several agencies were expected around campus this week.Dec. 15, 2025, 9:20 a.m. ETBrown University on Monday planned to send emails to prospective students who applied during its early decision window, telling those students whether they had been accepted. But in an email to applicants this morning, the admissions office said it would delay notifying them for “up to 48 hours,” and asked for patience.Dec. 15, 2025, 5:57 a.m. ETMayor Brett Smiley of Providence speaking at Lippitt Memorial Park on Sunday during a candlelight vigil for the victims of a shooting at Brown University.Credit...Kylie Cooper/ReutersLaw enforcement officials in Providence, R.I., said late Sunday that they were releasing a person of interest they had detained in relation to the shooting at Brown University and continuing their search for the person who killed two people Saturday afternoon.“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community, and we want to reiterate what we said earlier, which remains true,” Mayor Brett Smiley of Providence said at the news conference. “We have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community.”The news was a sharp reversal from early Sunday, when city and law enforcement officials announced they had detained an unnamed person of interest in the shooting and were not seeking any other suspects.“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction, and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so,” said Attorney General Peter F. Neronha of Rhode Island.Asked if officials knew whether the gunman was even still in the state or the Providence community, Mayor Smiley said “We have no way of knowing.”Officials said they were desperately seeking any video and photographic evidence from the public to build out further leads.“There just weren’t a lot of cameras in that Brown building,” Mr. Neronha said, referring to the engineering building where the shooting took place. He added that “we’re not holding back video that we think would be useful, and I don’t think I should even have to say it.”Mr. Neronha declined to offer any further information on what evidence emerged that had changed the investigation, which now includes a host of local, state and federal agencies.“Obviously we have a murderer out there,” he said. “So we’re not going to give away the game plan.”Dec. 15, 2025, 12:10 a.m. ETThe message from Brown University officials said that “we continue to make every effort to ensure the safety and security of the campus,” while also “advising every member of the Brown community to be vigilant in their own activities on campus.”Dec. 15, 2025, 12:08 a.m. ETBrown University officials published a late-night message about the release of the person who had been detained. “We know that this update may prompt numerous questions,” the message said. “This remains an active police investigation, and the university must defer to the Providence Police Department to release information as they deem appropriate.”Dec. 14, 2025, 11:29 p.m. ETAttorney General Peter Neronha, at the end of the Sunday night news conference, expressed confidence that investigators would ultimately solve the case. “Obviously we have a murderer out there, frankly, and so we’re not going to give away the game plan,” he said.Dec. 14, 2025, 11:27 p.m. ET“There just weren’t a lot of cameras in that Brown building,” the state attorney general said. He added that “we’re not holding back video that we think would be useful, and I don’t think I should even have to say it.”Dec. 14, 2025, 11:27 p.m. ETSpeaking about the person who had been in custody, Attorney General Neronha said that “there is no basis to consider him a person of interest.”Dec. 14, 2025, 11:26 p.m. ETMayor Smiley said officials would provide additional updates going forward. “I imagine that the Providence community feels a little bit more anxious right now than they did an hour ago, and I understand that,” he said.Credit...Taylor Coester/ReutersDec. 14, 2025, 9:41 p.m. ETHundreds of people gathered for a candlelight vigil at Lippitt Memorial Park in Providence, R.I., on Sunday night.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesAt a snow-swept outdoor vigil Sunday night for the victims of the Brown University shooting, the mayor of Providence edged sideways through the crowd, clapping people on the shoulder and getting clapped right back, looking more like a favorite nephew at a family gathering.The shooting on Saturday, which killed two students at the Ivy League school and injured nine, brought a rare national spotlight to Providence, a place that operates almost like a city-state in the tiny and quirky state of Rhode Island.It also thrust Brett Smiley, a low-key mayor with a reputation as technocratic, into a high-profile role as the community’s steadying hand in a turbulent crisis. At televised news conferences, Mr. Smiley has seemed determined to deliver what he calls verified information mixed with empathy for his shaken residents.“I think my job in the days to come is to help our community heal, to process the trauma that they’ve been through,” said Mr. Smiley, a trim, bespectacled 46-year-old who has held the job for three years.Rhode Island has not experienced such a high-profile national news story for more than two decades, not since indoor fireworks ignited a blaze in West Warwick at the Station nightclub in 2003, killing 100 people at a rock concert. Since the fire, Rhode Islanders have often spoken about the “two degrees of separation” among residents of this compact and tight-knit state — many people personally knew someone who was affected.“We always thought we were, in Rhode Island, just like a small place,” Mr. Smiley said in an interview on Sunday. “We always thought of ourselves as a little bit different.”A large-scale school shooting, he added, “has never happened before, and I’m sure we all hoped — I know I hoped — it never would happen here. And so it’s very upsetting and traumatic for this community.”Brown University draws students from around the country and the world, to a campus blended into Providence’s East Side neighborhood.Among the several hundred attendees at Sunday’s vigil, John Speredakos, 63, of New York City, stood on a park bench to get a better view of the ceremony. He was there because he has a daughter who was a senior at Brown.He said he had watched updates on the crisis closely. He praised the city’s initial response to the attack, and the 12-hour manhunt for the shooter that followed.“I felt they were dealing as best they could on many fronts at one time,” he said of the city’s leaders.It has been two decades since Rhode Island has experienced such a high-profile tragedy. Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesMr. Smiley, a graduate of DePaul University, lives on Hope Street, just three buildings away from where the shooting took place. The area is in the affluent and liberal East Side.The mayor said he was home on Saturday watching a Providence College basketball game on TV, when speeding police lights outside his window caught his eye. His phone rang almost at that moment.It was a Providence police official, who told him there was a report of a shooter on campus. “At that moment, honestly, I slipped into, just sort of action mode,” he said.Mr. Smiley was experienced in Rhode Island politics long before becoming mayor, working for the former Providence mayors David Cicilline and Jorge Elorza, and then for former Governor Gina Raimondo.“There’s no way to really be prepared for a day like today, but I’ve seen leaders in times of crisis,” he said.During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the administration of Ms. Raimondo, for whom he worked at the time, “communicated relentlessly” with the public, he said.“There’s very legitimate and understandable fear and anxiety in the community, and the way in which we can help manage that fear and anxiety is to continue to provide information,” Mr. Smiley said.Dec. 14, 2025, 5:15 p.m. ETThe shooting at Brown University brought hundreds of police officers in helmets and armor to campus.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesIt began shortly after 4 p.m., when a masked man burst into a lecture hall at Brown University with a rifle, yelled something incomprehensible, and began spraying bullets at the 60 or so students who were there for an economics study session ahead of final exams.Some students were able to escape through the side doors of the hall. Others could only hide, ducking under chairs and behind desks. Two were killed, and nine wounded.Joseph Oduro, a 21-year-old senior and teaching assistant who was leading the study session, said he took cover behind a desk with about 20 others. “The students in the middle were impacted the most,” he said. “Many of them were lying there and they were not moving.”Twelve hours after the shooting began, U.S. marshals and local officers detained a person of interest, at a hotel in Coventry, R.I., about 15 miles south of campus. That person was released without being charged, authorities announced in a news conference late Sunday night.The search for the shooter was continuing, authorities said Sunday, as they asked for the public’s help and said they would be searching for video footage from the neighborhood near the shooting scene. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said local officials were no longer advising residents to shelter in place and that there would be “an enhanced law enforcement presence in Providence and on the Brown campus.”Most students first learned what was happening through a phone alert, at 4:22 p.m. on Saturday, a few minutes after sunset on a wintry day, while many of them were studying for final exams. The alert blared a shocking warning: There was an active shooter at the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building. The alert directed people on the Providence, R.I., campus to shelter in place.Police mobilized to find a shooter at Brown University on Saturday.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesJohn Goncalves, a Brown alumnus who represents the neighborhood on the Providence City Council, said he was at a public event Saturday when his phone was overwhelmed with incoming messages. As he pieced together the startling information about what had happened, “it was almost impossible to process,” he said. “This is a community where people feel safe.”But on Saturday night, students and nearby residents on lockdown peeked from their windows to see an overwhelming police response, with officers wearing armor and helmets and toting weapons, something entirely out of character for their neighborhood.The streets near the school are a popular entertainment spot for both students and residents of Providence, who come for restaurants, bars and a theater. The neighborhood, decked out for the holidays, was transformed on Saturday, abandoned by residents and swarming, instead, with armed police.Military-style vehicles idled in intersections. Circling helicopters thrummed overhead. The hundreds of officers stood out in particular for the rifles and shotguns they carried — fearsome weaponry not often seen on the streets of an Ivy League college town. The officers fanned out through the neighborhood, searching for the shooter, shining powerful lights down alleyways and into parked cars.Dozens of ambulances, lights flashing, queued up ominously in long lines on side streets, in case there were more shooting and more victims.Mayor Smiley said he met with a wounded student at the hospital who was thankful for active shooter drills in high school. “We shouldn’t have to do active shooter drills, but it helped,” the mayor said, “and the reason it helped, and the reason we do these drills, is because it’s so damn frequent.”Spencer Yang, 18, who was shot in the leg in the science lecture hall, recalled little about the shooter, who entered at the rear of the auditorium-style classroom. He remembered vividly, though, that at the bang of gunshots, students began to run toward the front of the downward-sloping classroom.“I didn’t make it all the way to the front — I just laid down between some seats,” Mr. Yang said.“After the shots rang out, it was kind of silent,” he said. “Once he was gone, I just remember a bunch of people started screaming.”Many sheltered in place for hours after the initial alert, until the police arrived to search them and their buildings. Some 2,000 students were evacuated; many ended up initially at a nearby athletic center, before being relocated to stay with friends or in hotels.Annelise Mages, 17, a first-year pre-med student from San Diego, was studying for her chemistry final in the high-rise Sciences Library, which overlooks the building where the shooting took place. She first noticed police lights, and then received the university alert.From the windows on the fourth floor, she and other students watched emergency medical teams tend to injured people; one student was brought out on a stretcher, holding his arm.She and dozens of other students barricaded doors with white boards and chairs. Some hid in bathrooms.Two or three hours later, about seven police officers broke down the barricades. With the shooter still at large, the police evacuated the students at gunpoint, screaming at them to hold their hands up, Ms. Mages said. Some students were in tears.The attack on killed two students and injured nine.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesThe group then spent another four to five hours in the building’s basement, before they were bused to the university’s athletic center. There, they were split into male and female lines and patted down. Hundreds of students waited in a line for food.When Ms. Mages exited the athletic center on Sunday morning around 3 a.m., after nearly 12 hours of lockdown in several different locations, the first thing she noticed was the newly fallen snow.“The first snow of the year,” she said. “We’re all in mourning, and it’s winter, and I’m not sure what the spring at Brown will look like.”Dec. 14, 2025, 2:57 p.m. ETThe Barus and Holley building on the Brown University campus, where Saturday’s shooting occurred. Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York TimesWhen Annelise Mages, 17, exited the Brown University athletic center on Sunday morning around 3 a.m., after nearly 12 hours of lockdown in several locations on campus, the first thing she noticed was the snow.“The first snow of the year,” she said. “We’re all in mourning, and it’s winter, and I’m not sure what the spring at Brown will look like.”On Saturday afternoon, Ms. Mages, a first-year pre-med student from San Diego, was studying for her chemistry final in the high-rise Sciences Library, which overlooks the Barus and Holley building where the shooting took place.She first noticed police lights, and later received a university alert about an active shooter.From the oversize windows on the library’s fourth floor, she and other students watched emergency medical teams tend to several injured people, and saw one student brought out of the Barus and Holley building on a stretcher, holding his arm.She and dozens of other students then decided to protect themselves by lowering shades and barricading doors, using whiteboards and chairs. Some chose to hide in the bathrooms. Ms. Mages called her mother to tell her she was safe.She estimated it was two to three hours later when about seven police officers broke down the barricades. The officers evacuated students at gunpoint, screaming at them to hold their hands up, Ms. Mages said. Some students were in tears.The group then spent another four to five hours in the building’s basement, before they were bused, via a roundabout route, to the university’s athletic center. There, they were split into male and female lines and patted down. Hundreds of students waited in line for food, but there did not seem to be enough, Ms. Mages said.After about 12 hours, she finally had her first meal since the ordeal began: soggy French fries and tortellini, carried in a takeout container by a friend who had been barricaded in a dining hall earlier in the evening before also being brought to the athletic center.Ms. Mages said she had chosen Brown, in part, because it was a welcoming, joyful community that, until yesterday, she perceived as a safe haven. “I would say that Brown is the institution I would have thought least likely to have a school shooting,” she said.Now, she added, she expected the experiences of the last several days to shape the rest of her and her classmates’ lives.