PROVIDENCE – Police have detained a person of interest, a man in his 20s, in connection with a shooting that killed two students and injured nine others at Brown University Saturday.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez confirmed the detainment and little else at a press conference Sunday afternoon inside a fire station a few blocks from where the shooting took place.

Perez declined to comment on whether a weapon had been found or the person of interest had any connection to Brown or Rhode Island in general.

“I have a responsibility to the integrity of this investigation,” he said, adding that it was important to “stand on grounded facts, not speculation.”

Investigators including city, state, and federal officers, are currently collecting and seizing relevant evidence.

Individuals wearing Federal Bureau of Investigation shirts and jackets and latex gloves walked in and out of Barus and Holley, the building at Brown where the shooting took place. The parking lot next door which is often empty was filled with tactical vehicles from different agencies.

According to several students who were on campus during the shooting, the incident took place in a classroom during an introductory economic course’s study session with in the engineering building, which hosts both lab space and amphitheater style classroom meant for large classes and lectures.

No one has been charged, but officials indicated that they would like to bring state rather than federal charges against any alleged shooter.

Perez said that information was moving quickly and that he felt better about the investigation Sunday afternoon than he had at midnight.

“My goal is that we’re able to have that information as soon as possible,” he told the press.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said that justice in this case will hopefully come from a prosecution and that to avoid jeopardizing the case, they would not have additional updates on the investigation until they had concrete information.

Smiley said that he did speak to four of the victims at the hospital since the shooting. One victim is in critical but stable condition, seven are in stable condition, and one victim has already been released.

Authorities have yet to identify the victims, who are all students, because some of the families are still in transit and have not been notified.

The mayor said he was inspired by the students who were facing the horrific situation so bravely. Although he said he wouldn’t comment on the policy changes he thinks should be implemented to prevent something like this from happening again – “not today,” he said – Smiley did express sadness that incidents like this happen “so damn often.”

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Brown University President Christina Paxson spoke briefly at the presser, saying that she’d just talked to students in the school’s main cafeteria.

“They’re amazing,” she said, before her voice caught in her throat and she started to tear up.

Future press conferences will likely take place at the Providence Police Headquarters across the city.

Mayor Smiley also invited all members of the community to join in a Menorah/Tree lighting at Lippitt Park on the East Side of Providence at 5 p.m.

Mayor Brett Smiley speaks to reporters during a Brown University news conference, in Providence, R. I., Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.