Manhunt continues days after deadly shooting at Brown University

The manhunt for a gunman who killed two people and injured nine at Brown University entered its fourth day, as students who were on campus at the time of the shooting recalled a pervasive sense of unease during the lockdown.

Police in Providence, Rhode Island, where the university is located, continue to search for the suspect. Authorities said they had detained a "person of interest" on Sunday but later released the individual.

Rhode Island is among the states with the lowest violent crime rates in the United States, according to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

Brown University said in a statement on Sunday that there was no immediate threat to the campus or the surrounding community. The university also announced that all remaining in-person classes and exams for the semester have been canceled.

Data from the Gun Violence Archive show that, including this incident, the number of mass shootings nationwide has reached 393 in 2025.

Four days after the incident, the campus has gradually resumed normal operations, while students held a vigil in remembrance of their fellow students who were killed: Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Uzbekistan and Ella Cook, from Alabama, a sophomore and vice-president of the university's Republican club.

The shooting happened during the school's finals season, when the Barus and Holley engineering building was busy with exams and study sessions. Students were also preparing for the upcoming Christmas break.

During the lockdown after the shooting, students sheltered for hours in nearby classrooms and offices, locking themselves inside until police officers moved in to clear the area. The university sent its first emergency alert at 4:22 pm, warning that there was an active shooter on campus and instructing everyone to shelter in place, lock doors, silence phones and remain hidden until further notice.

The school has now partially reopened, but many students said they still felt uneasy about campus safety.

Zico, a graduate student at Brown University who declined to give his last name, said he was hiding inside the same building where the mass shooting occurred. At the time, he was working in a laboratory in the building.

"My first reaction was repeatedly weighing whether to run or hide," he told China Daily. "I pushed some office chairs around the door as a barrier, hid under a desk, and stayed completely silent while waiting for the police to arrive."

Zico said he received the emergency alert shortly after 4 pm. He was then moved to a secured classroom around 5 pm by police, transferred to a gym about 7 pm, and was not able to return home until around midnight.

"More than fear, what I felt was frustration," he said. "It's been days, and the suspect still hasn't been caught. There seem to be very few leads for investigation."

Zico said Rhode Island is generally considered a relatively safe state, and that public safety was one factor he considered when choosing Brown. Though the campus reopened on Tuesday, the area remained quiet, possibly because students were beginning to leave ahead of the holiday break. He said he hopes the university can strengthen campus security, while the gun problem needs to be addressed more seriously.

Bella Wang, also a student at Brown University, said the violence on the school's campus was scary.

She recalled arriving at the campus and working on a final project with classmates in the university's computer science building. The building sits between the library and the engineering building, where the shooting occurred.

Wang said they were initially in the first-floor lobby near the entrance when they realized the shooting was nearby. The shooter might have passed through the building. They took an elevator to the third floor, found a classroom and locked themselves inside. They remained there for five to six hours before police began clearing the building and evacuating those inside.

"At first, I couldn't believe it was happening," she told China Daily. "It felt very distant, like it wasn't real. Even an hour or two later, we still thought maybe nothing had actually happened."

The shooting came as a shock to many students, noting that Brown is not known as a party school and that Rhode Island, as a whole, has relatively low crime rates, she said.

"School is supposed to be a safe place," she said. "Now I don't really feel comfortable going out," she said.