A person of interest was in custody early on Sunday in connection with a shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine more the previous day, mayor Brett Smiley of Providence said.

The person of interest detained by law enforcement is in their twenties, said Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of police in Providence.

Of the wounded victims, six were in critical but stable condition, one was in critical condition and another was in stable condition late on Saturday. A ninth victim with non-life-threatening injuries was later identified. All were students, the university said.

The shooting took place inside a classroom on the first floor of a seven-story engineering building.

The shooting was first reported at about 4pm (local time). 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.

The Brown campus remained on lockdown early on Sunday, and much of Providence was on edge. It was “imperative that all members of our community remain sheltered in place”, the university said on social media. “The law enforcement response remains ongoing.”

The university has cancelled all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects for the rest of the fall semester, as it the mourns two students killed in a campus shooting on Saturday, school officials said.

President Donald Trump said on social media that he had been briefed on the shooting and that the FBI was on the scene.

Teacher’s account

Joseph Oduro was leading an economics study session at Brown University on Saturday afternoon when a masked man carrying a rifle burst into his classroom of about 60 students and started shooting.

The session for the Principles of Economics class, scheduled from 2pm to 4pm (local time) in an engineering building on the Brown campus, was nearly over. “I was just teaching my review, like usual,” Oduro, a 21-year-old senior and teaching assistant, said in an interview.

A little after 4pm (local time), he ended the session, which was to be his last time teaching that particular group of students, and said goodbye. “I was telling my students that I am so grateful for them,” he said.

As they stood to leave, he said, “all of a sudden, we heard gunshots and people screaming” in the hall outside.

About three seconds later, he said, a man with a face mask and a rifle entered the classroom and started shooting.

He said he hid behind a desk with about 20 other students, and that one was shot in the leg.

About 20 other students ran out of the room’s side doors, he said.

New York Times News Service