Authorities say “persons of interest” detained in the Brown University shooting are being released.
“We would like to inform the community that this individual will be released from Providence Police shortly,” Mayor Brett Smiley said at a surprise press conference at 11 p.m. on Sunday, December 14.
Smiley encouraged anyone with information about the shooting to contact police and acknowledged the news could “spark new anxiety.”
“We believe you remain safe in our communities, although we will continue to have an increased police presence,” he said.
Gov. Dan McKee said he and Smiley spoke by phone with FBI Director Kash Patel, who pledged continued resources.
“This is what these investigations look like,” Attorney General Peter Neronha told a news conference. “Sometimes you go one direction and you have to go another.”
Law enforcement officers gather on Thayer Street after a shooting at Brown University on Dec. 13.
Those tips “led us to detain a person of interest,” but the evidence “now points in a different direction,” Neronha said.
“It’s unfortunate that this man’s name was leaked to the public,” he said. “It’s hard to put it back in the bottle.”
Smiley said law enforcement officials are looking for more video evidence and people who live nearby should expect to see Providence police and other law enforcement officers going door to door. He said all surveillance video from the building was reviewed and there was no other “actionable” video.
When asked by the media, Neronha said there was “substantial evidence” to justify detaining the suspect, but he noted that evidence at the scene needed to be tested and said testing did not prove a link. He declined to identify the type of evidence at issue.
Neronha said Providence police and other law enforcement agencies continue to pursue additional leads while the suspect is in custody. Both he and Providence Police Chief Capt. Oscar Perez noted that it is normal to detain people during investigations and then release them if there is no evidence to file charges.
Unlike other news conferences held about the shooting, no members of federal agencies participated in Sunday night’s news conference.
While federal law enforcement is involved, Neronha said the investigation is ultimately a case in Providence, “where they are the leaders and they have the most boots on the ground.”
Smiley said the shelter-in-place advisory has been lifted because “we have not received any additional threats to the Brown community, the Providence community and the Rhode Island community” since the shooting. That hasn’t changed, he said.
Smiley said there was “no way of knowing” whether the shooter was still in the community and acknowledged that could lead to increased anxiety. He urged people in the area of Hope and Waterman streets to contact law enforcement if they have any video footage that may be relevant to the investigation.
Asked if police had additional video from inside the Brown Building where the shooting occurred that could help identify the shooter, Smiley said none had been found.
“Brown’s video has been reviewed and the video shared yesterday was the most useful video that could be shared,” he said.
“If there’s a video showing a face, you own it,” Neronha told reporters.
“We don’t withhold videos that we think are useful,” Neronha said in response to questions. He said the building where the shooting occurred was “an old building with a new building connected to it” and there weren’t many cameras.
“Frankly, we have a murderer there,” Neronha said.
Neronha said lab tests linking suspects to evidence at the scene can take up to a full day, and the results of those tests can come back positive or negative. “Here, they tested negative, so we are now going to release that person of interest,” he said. “But that’s how these investigations work.”
Providence Journal reporter Patrick Anderson contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared in The Providence Journal: Brown University mass shooting suspect to be released soon
