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 issued after law enforcement executives determined there was no basis to keep the individual in custody functionaries announced Sunday night The disclosure made at a hastily convened late night news conference represents a dramatic setback in an research into killings that set off hours of chaos on the Ivy League campus and unravels progress that officers 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 administrators pledging to redouble efforts in the review 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 bureaucrats 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 issued information about a anticipated 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 administration never circulated 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 explained He noted that certainly there was specific degree of evidence that pointed to the individual who d been taken into custody but that evidence needed to be corroborated and proven And over the last hours leading into just very very in recent days 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 recounted 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 several students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves One video presented 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 disclosed 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 informed AP Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and personnel also unveiled two loaded -round magazines the official declared One of the firearms was equipped with a laser sight that projects a dot to aid in targeting declared the official who was not authorized to discuss the assessment publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity One candidate of the nine wounded students had been disclosed from the hospital commented 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 proven that a contemporary graduate Kendall Turner was critically wounded The school disclosed her parents were with her Our school locality is rallying around Kendall her classmates and her loved ones and we will continue to offer our full encouragement in the days ahead the school stated District 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 public to shine a little bit of light tonight there s nothing better that we can be doing Mayor Brett Smiley noted at a news conference earlier in the day Smiley explained he visited a few wounded students and was inspired by their courage hope and gratitude One reported him that ongoing shooting drills done in high school proved helpful The resilience that these survivors presented and shared with me is frankly pretty overwhelming he announced 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 declared Emma Ferraro a chemical engineering pupil 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 circulated by police demonstrated 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 explained she left her lab in the engineering building minutes before shots rang out The engineering and thermal science scholar 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 novice 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 revealed watching through the window as officers surrounded his dorm Brown the seventh-oldest higher coaching institution in the U S is one of the nation s majority prestigious colleges with roughly undergraduates and more than graduate students