Authorities say they will release person of interest detained in Brown University shooting

PROVIDENCE R I AP A person of interest detained after a Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine will be distributed after law enforcement officials determined there was no basis to keep the individual in custody executives disclosed Sunday night The disclosure made at a hastily convened late night news conference represents a dramatic setback in an study into killings that set off hours of chaos on the Ivy League campus and unravels progress that functionaries thought they had made earlier in the day when they detained a man at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack No current suspect in deadly shooting The release of the lone person of interest leaves law enforcement without any known suspect with personnel pledging to redouble efforts in the assessment by canvassing for video surveillance that could help pinpoint the killer s identity We have a murderer out there disclosed Attorney General Peter Neronha while Providence Mayor Brett Smiley acknowledged that the news is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our locality Despite an enhanced police presence at Brown administrators are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting when hundreds of officers searched for the shooter and urged students and staff to shelter in place The lockdown which stretched into the night was lifted early Sunday but agents had not yet disclosed information about a expected motive On Sunday morning personnel took into custody a person of interest at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry Rhode Island about miles kilometers from Providence Two people familiar with the matter identified that individual as a -year-old man from Wisconsin though officers never distributed the individual s name I ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another and that s exactly what has happened over the last hours or so Neronha stated He mentioned that certainly there was particular degree of evidence that pointed to the individual who d been taken into custody but that evidence needed to be corroborated and validated And over the last hours leading into just very very just now that evidence now points in a different direction Shooting occurred during busy period on campus The shooting occurred during one of the busiest moments of the academic calendar as final exams were underway Brown canceled all remaining classes exams papers and projects for the semester and advised students they could leave campus underscoring the scale of the disruption and the gravity of the attack As police scoured the area for the shooter multiple students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves One video exhibited students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building University President Christina Paxson teared up while describing her conversations with students both on campus and in the hospital They are amazing and they re supporting each other she mentioned at a news conference There s just a lot of gratitude The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building firing more than rounds from a mm handgun a law enforcement official stated AP Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and bureaucrats also revealed two loaded -round magazines the official mentioned One of the firearms was equipped with a laser sight that projects a dot to aid in targeting noted the official who was not authorized to discuss the inquiry publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity One scholar of the nine wounded students had been disclosed from the hospital reported Paxson Seven others were in critical but stable condition and one was in critical condition Durham Academy a private K- school in Durham North Carolina authenticated that a newest graduate Kendall Turner was critically wounded The school commented her parents were with her Our school public is rallying around Kendall her classmates and her loved ones and we will continue to offer our full help in the days ahead the school reported Locality comes together to remember casualties On Sunday evening city leaders residents and others gathered at a park to honor the casualties The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting For those who know at least bit of the Hanukkah story it is quite clear that if we can come together as a region to shine a little bit of light tonight there s nothing better that we can be doing Mayor Brett Smiley announced at a news conference earlier in the day Smiley noted he visited specific wounded students and was inspired by their courage hope and gratitude One reported him that functioning shooting drills done in high school proved helpful The resilience that these survivors proved and shared with me is frankly pretty overwhelming he disclosed Exams were underway when the shooting began Investigators were not directly sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom at the Barus Holley building a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department The building includes more than laboratories dozens of classrooms and offices according to the university s website Engineering design exams were underway Outer doors of the building were unlocked but rooms being used for final exams required badge access Smiley mentioned Emma Ferraro a chemical engineering apprentice was in the lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops Once she realized they were gunshots she darted for the door and into a nearby building where she waited for hours Surveillance video disclosed by police indicated a suspect dressed in black walking from the scene Former Survivor contestant left the building just before shooting Eva Erickson a doctoral candidate who was the runner-up earlier this year on the CBS reality competition show Survivor declared she left her lab in the engineering building minutes before shots rang out The engineering and thermal science candidate shared candid moments on Survivor as the show s first openly autistic contestant She was locked down in the campus gym following the shooting and shared on social media that the only other member of her lab who was present was safely evacuated Brown senior biochemistry apprentice Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside I m just in here shaking he reported watching through the window as officers surrounded his dorm Brown the seventh-oldest higher training institution in the U S is one of the nation s the majority prestigious colleges with roughly undergraduates and more than graduate students