Authorities still trying to identify Brown University gunman three days into manhunt

PROVIDENCE - Authorities on Dec 16 once again asked members of the public for help identifying the suspected gunman who killed two Brown University students
in a classroom over the weekend, as the manhunt stretched past 72 hours and residents remained on edge.

In a late-afternoon press conference, officials in Providence, Rhode Island, said they still have not identified the attacker.

They played several video clips taken from neighbourhood cameras that show the possible shooter walking near the site of the shooting on Dec 13, wearing dark clothes and a face mask.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said investigators were hoping someone might recognise the person based on his body movements, posture and bearing.

He also said that police have evidence the person was in the area as early as 10.30am on Dec 13, more than five hours before the attack, and that he was likely “casing” the scene.

Officials said they are confident the person in the video is the gunman, but they also have “zero” evidence as to the motive for the shooting, according to Rhode Island Attorney-General Peter Neronha.

Ealier on Dec 16, authorities released a timeline video comprised of surveillance clips from neighbourhood cameras and a car’s dashcam tracking the movements of the suspected shooter on Dec 13.

In one clip, the man can be seen at a distance walking from the building’s parking lot toward the street, even as police cars with flashing emergency lights arrive at the scene. The final clip shows the man walking along that street just three minutes after the shooting.

Officials said there were limited cameras inside the engineering and physics building where the shooting took place, and that none had recorded any clear footage of the gunman.

Residents anxious as search reaches fourth day

Police have received more than 200 tips and are working through them, Mr Perez said. Mr Neronha defended the speed of the investigation, saying it was difficult but that it was “going really well” and asked the public for patience.

But the days-long search has prompted many residents in the College Hill neighborhood near campus to stay behind locked doors, while many Brown undergraduate students hastily cleared out of the city after the school cancelled classes and exams for the rest of the year.

Authorities initially detained another person of interest, a man in his 20s, early on Dec 14, but they eventually released him
after concluding that he was not involved.

The news that there was no suspect in custody brought fresh anxiety to nearby residents, who opened their doors on Dec 15 to police officers seeking any camera footage that might have captured the shooter.

Mr Patrick Moran has been supervising his young children’s video games, Lego building, puzzle ​playing and ear-piercing drumming after their private school, the Wheeler School, canceled classes for the rest of ⁠the week.

“I am happy to have them home. The shooter is still out there, and so let’s take a little precaution and keep the kids home,” Mr Moran said.

Public schools in Providence remained open on Dec 16, but the district canceled after-school activities. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said on Dec 15 that parents should send their children to school if they feel comfortable doing so.

Mr Smiley has made a point of being out and about in the neighbourhood and stopped for coffee at L’Artisan Cafe on Dec 15.

The cafe is a short distance ​from where the shooting happened and a place uniformed police officers often stop in for coffee and to warm up. The last days they have been largely absent from the cafe amid stepped-up patrols.

Enhanced security in place

In addition to the two deaths, eight students were injured in the attack, and seven remain in the hospital, with one person in critical condition, officials said.

Brown said it had implemented enhanced security measures since the shooting, including doubling the university department of public safety’s staffing and restricting entry to campus buildings.

The gunman on the afternoon of Dec 13 walked into an engineering and physics building with the doors left unlocked while exams were taking place, according to police.

He opened fire with a 9mm gun inside a classroom and then fled, triggering a campus lockdown that left students barricaded in classrooms or hiding beneath furniture for hours.

Investigators detained a man in his 20s on Dec 14 but released him late in the day after concluding that he was not involved. Officials have not detailed the evidence that initially led them to take the unnamed man into custody.

Brown is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. The Ivy League school, ‍which has nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students, cancelled exams and classes for the rest of the year.

The two students killed were Ms Ella Cook, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and freshman Mukhammad Aziz ​Umurzokov
, a Uzbekistan-born Virginian.

Ms Cook, 19, was the vice-president of the school’s College Republicans and a “leading Republican voice at Brown”, according to an X post from the New York Republicans Club.

In her hometown, she worked at an ice cream shop in high school, ​where her coworkers used to tell customers with pride that she was headed to a top-rated school.        

Umurzokov, 18, had moved with his family as a child ‌to Virginia, where he graduated Midlothian High School in spring 2025 as a top-ten student. He had planned to become a neurosurgeon.

“He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation, and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew,” his family wrote in an online fundraising post. “Our family is incredibly devastated by this ‌loss.” REUTERS