The lockdown began at 4:22 p.m. when gunfire erupted in room 166 of the Barus & Holley Engineering building.
Over 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers searched the Ivy League campus until 5:40 a.m. Sunday, when the shelter-in-place order was lifted. One victim remains in critical condition; another is stable.
Shortly before dawn Sunday, at least 20 officers—including local police, U.S. Marshals and FBI agents—descended on a Hampton Inn in Coventry, about 20 miles from Providence. Law enforcement banged on a hotel room door and detained a man they had identified as a person of interest, asking where he had been during the shooting.
Officers told the man they had a warrant for his apartment and took him into custody. However, late Sunday night, authorities released him without charges.
"The evidence points in a different direction," said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. "It's fair to say that there is no basis to consider him a person of interest. So, that's why he's being released."
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee acknowledged there are "a lot of steps left to take" in the investigation, adding: "After 30 years in law enforcement, there were a lot of twists and a lot of roads that I've walked down. I can't tell you what direction it's going to take right now, but we're going to solve this case."
The shooting occurred on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre and marks at least the 391st mass shooting in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
For some Brown students, the trauma was compounded by previous exposure to gun violence. Sophomore Zoe Weissman survived the 2018 Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.
"I'm just angry that there are kids like me in this country who have had to go through this not once but twice," Weissman told CNN.
Junior Mia Tretta, who was shot in the stomach during the 2019 Saugus High School shooting in California, chose Brown specifically for its small, contained campus where she hoped to feel safe.
"Unfortunately, gun violence doesn't care if you've already been shot in a school shooting," Tretta said.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley noted the generational impact.
"We have a generation of kids who have had to do active shooter trainings. That's not something I had to do when I was a kid."
