Officials are now looking for a person who walked by the person of interest in Brown University mass shooting

This story was originally published in Rhode Island Current, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.

Still no name, no motive, no weapon as manhunt continues

Officials are now looking for a person who walked by the person of interest in Brown University mass shooting

PROVIDENCE — Investigators are widening their search as the hunt for the man believed responsible for the Brown University mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine others enters its fifth day.

Report a tip

Anyone with information regarding the Brown University shooting can submit an anonymous tip by phone to the FBI at 1 (800) 225-5324 or the Providence Police Department at (401) 272-3121. 

Information, including photo and video evidence, can also be submitted online via the FBI website. 

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person responsible. 

Providence Police on Wednesday released new images of a second person who was walking through the East Side neighborhood at the same time as the suspected shooter on Saturday, along with a map of a focus area stretching 10 blocks south of the Barus and Holley engineering building where the fatal shooting occurred.

Officials are again calling upon the public for help in identifying the second person, shown wearing a dark jacket with a tan sweatshirt underneath, hood pulled up, and carrying a tan bag, believed to have been close to the 5-foot-8 man with a stocky build previously identified as the main “person of interest” in the shooting.

“Videos don’t speak,” Col. Oscar Perez, Providence Police chief, said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “I wish the video could speak, and then I’d have the answers I need.”

Perez declined to answer whether the second person was connected to the person of interest. 

Nearly 100 hours have passed since the fatal shooting at the campus engineering building at 4 p.m. Saturday. More than 200 tips, including photo and video evidence from property security systems and vehicle dash cameras, have poured in as local, state, and federal investigators searched for physical evidence in the surrounding neighborhood.

“This is a very intensive investigation,” Perez said. “It’s going to take public assistance. It’s going to take 21st century policing involving technology, but it’s also going to take good old fashioned police work, which is knocking on doors, going through yards.”

Perez said later, “A person is going to get caught. We’re not going to stop until they do.”

The area of focus has expanded beyond the intersection of Ives and Pitman streets, where the gunman was last detected on video footage after the crime, stretching south into Fox Point, almost reaching the Washington Bridge, according to the new map.

“We want to make sure we don’t miss anything,” Perez said.

Expanding circles

Concentric circles growing outward is standard practice for investigations, and Perez said the team is ready to follow tips and leads across and beyond state lines, too.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha offered new insight into officials’ decision to keep key details of the investigation under wraps, including videos from inside the building that show students fleeing after the gunman opened fire with what officials have said was a 9 millimeter gun. They have not confirmed whether the weapon has been found.

“These are not facts that advance the investigation,” Neronha said of the video recorded inside Barus and Holley showing students fleeing. “As we interview witnesses, we don’t want them to learn facts from these press conferences. We’re being careful about the facts that we are sharing for that reason.”

The collaboration of nine federal agencies and state and local investigators appears somewhat disjointed, with the FBI releasing videos and images separately from Providence police on Tuesday. Yet officials presented a united front, stressing teamwork and partnership, including with Brown University.

University officials faced more questions from reporters Wednesday about the lack of camera footage in the part of the academic building where the shooting took place at the end of a review session for an economics final. University Provost Francis Doyle in response said that all evidence had been turned over to law enforcement, while noting that it would be “counterproductive” to reveal the locations of the university’s 1,200 camera security system.

The vacuum of information and images has left the capital city on edge and fueled speculation and misinformation on social media. Brown in a statement Tuesday night warned about harmful doxxing activity toward at least one member of the university.

“Accusations, speculation and conspiracies we’re seeing on social media and in some news reports are irresponsible, harmful, and in some cases dangerous for the safety of individuals in our community” the university said. “It is not unusual as a safety measure to take steps to protect an individual’s safety when this kind of activity happens, including in regard to their online presence.

Mayor Brett Smiley cautioned against AI-generated images being circulated online. Officials have created an online repository of verified photos and videos of the suspect, the second person, and the map area, available on the city website.

No additional updates are expected until Thursday when another briefing is scheduled for 4 p.m., Smiley said.

Patient update 

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said that another student was discharged earlier Wednesday from Rhode Island Hospital, leaving six still hospitalized. One student was upgraded from critical condition to critical but stable, hospital spokesperson Kelly Brennan confirmed. The other five are listed in stable condition.

“The parents that I spoke with today all reported that their kids are improving so this is a happy announcement,” Smiley said.

Officials have not released the names of the injured students, but one of the hospitalized students is named as the beneficiary of a GoFundMe fundraiser created two days ago and verified by the online platform’s Trust & Safety team on Wednesday. Over $66,000 had been raised to support the recovery of Jacob Spears, 18, of Evans, Georgia.

Spears, a graduate of Evans High School and the only student from his class to attend an Ivy League school, said in an interview with CBS News that he had been shot in the back but managed to run out of the classroom. He said his grandfather was at the hospital with him. Spears told CBS that the study session he had attended in the Barus and Holley engineering building had ended and that students were standing up to leave when the shooting started. 

GoFundMe created a centralized hub housing all verified GoFundMe fundraisers related to the shooting.