Providence’s police chief said an unidentified suspect appeared to be “casing” the area around a Brown University building for hours before committing a mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine others.
Investigators say they now have surveillance footage that shows a person of interest arriving in the neighborhood around 10:30 a.m. and staying until the shooting began around 4:05 p.m.
The footage, cobbled together mostly from houses nearby, offers a blurry portrait of an apparently heavyset person in dark pants and a two-toned jacket carrying a satchel. Their face is obscured by a winter hat and surgical mask.
The footage is being shared widely by law enforcement, in the hopes someone will recognize the person of interest from the limited characteristics currently available.
“You want to follow body movements, the way the person moves their arms, the body posture, the way they carry their weight,” Providence Police Col. Oscar Perez said at a press briefing on Tuesday night. “I think those are important movement patterns that may help you identify this individual, which is extremely important.”
Investigators said the suspect spent hours before the shooting in the blocks between Hope, Ives, Waterman and Power streets. After the shooting, the person fled through the same area, Perez said, and police can track his movements until the footage loses sight of them somewhere around Governor Street.
The FBI and Providence Police Department asked residents in that neighborhood to provide additional footage from any camera systems on their properties, including Tesla vehicles.
Many basic facts about the shooting and who committed it remain difficult to pin down. Some witnesses reported hearing the shooter yell something before opening fire.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said whatever the shooter said, if they said anything at all, remains unclear. Neronha said there is no evidence yet of “any kind of motive that is related at all to ethnicity or political outlook or culture.”
“There is no information that the investigative team has about motive,” Neronha said. “Zero.”
At the same press briefing, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said a second person hospitalized after the shooting has been released, leaving 7 victims still receiving treatment at Rhode Island Hospital. All but one are in stable condition, he said.
