Authorities say the “person of interest” held in the Brown University shooting is being released.
“We want to inform the community that that individual will soon be released by the Providence Police,” said Mayor Brett Smiley in a surprise announcement made at 11 pm on Sunday night, December 14.
Smiley urged anyone with information about the shooting to contact police and acknowledged that the news is likely to “cause new anxiety.”
“We believe you will remain safe in our community, although we will continue to have an increased police presence,” he said.
Gov. Dan McKee said he and Smiley spoke with FBI director Kash Patel by phone and he committed to continuing to provide resources.
“This is what these investigations look like,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha at the news conference. “Sometimes you go one way and you have to go another.”
Law enforcement officers gather on Thayer Street after the shooting at Brown University on December 13th.
Neronha said that the tips “led us to keep a person of interest,” but that the evidence “now points in a different direction.”
“It is really unfortunate that the name of this person was leaked to the public,” he said. “It’s hard to put this back in the bottle.”
Smiley said law enforcement officers are looking for additional video evidence, and that people living in the neighborhood should expect to see Providence Police and other law enforcement officers going door to door. He said that all the surveillance video from inside the building was examined and there was no additional “actionable” video.
During questions from the press, Neronha said that there was a “quantum of evidence” that justified the retention of the person of interest, but noted that the evidence on the ground had to be tested, and suggested that the tests did not prove a link. He declined to say what kind of evidence was in question.
Neronha said that the Providence Police and other law enforcement agencies continued to work other lines while the person of interest was detained. He and Providence Police Chief Colonel Oscar Perez both noted that it is normal for persons of interest to be detained during an investigation, and then released if there is no evidence to present charges.
Unlike other press conferences held regarding the shooting, no members of federal agencies were involved in Sunday evening’s press conference.
While federal law enforcement is involved, Neronha said the investigation is ultimately Providence’s case, “and they are the leader, and they have the most boots on the ground.”
Smiley said the shelter in place advisory was lifted because “we have not received one additional threat to the Brown community, to the Providence community, to the Rhode Island community” since the shooting. This has not changed, he said.
Smiley said there is “no way of knowing” if the shooter is still in the community, however, and acknowledged that it probably leads to greater anxiety. He encouraged people in the area of Hope and Waterman Street to contact law enforcement if they have any footage that may be relevant to the investigation.
Asked if the police had additional video from inside the Brown building where the shooting took place that would help identify the shooter, Smiley said that nothing has been found yet.
“The video from Brown has been reviewed and the video shared yesterday is the most useful that can be shared,” he said.
“If there was a video that showed a face, you would have it,” Neronha told reporters.
“We are not holding back videos that we think would be useful,” Neronha said in response to questions. He said that the building where the shooting took place is “an old building attached to a new one” and there simply weren’t many cameras.
“We have a killer there, frankly,” Neronha said.
Neronha said laboratory testing to link a person of interest to evidence from the scene can take a full day, and those tests can come back positive or negative. “Here, they came back negative, so we are in a position where we are now going to release that person of interest,” he said. “But that’s how these investigations work.”
Providence Journal reporter Patrick Anderson contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Brown University mass shooting person of interest to be released