By Kimberlee Kruesi, Alanna Durkin Richer and Jennifer McDermott
Providence: More than 400 law enforcement personnel were deployed on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) as police sought the suspect in a shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island that left two students dead and another nine people wounded at the Ivy League school, officials said.
The Providence university remained in lockdown several hours after a suspect with a firearm entered a building where students were taking exams. Streets around the campus were packed with emergency vehicles and security was heightened around the city as law enforcement agencies continued their manhunt.
The suspect remained at large, officials said, as police worked with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to search streets and buildings around the campus to find the individual.
Law enforcement officials carry rifles on a street in a neighbourhood near the university.Credit: AP
“This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has,” Brown president Christina Paxson told reporters, confirming all or nearly all of the victims were students.
The suspect was a male, possibly in his 30s, wearing dark clothing. He was last seen leaving the engineering building, Providence Deputy Chief of Police Timothy O’Hara said.
Investigators were not yet sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom. Outer doors of the building were unlocked, but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
Ambulances line Hope Street at Brown University in Providence.Credit: AP
Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorised to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Smiley said a shelter-in-place order was in effect for the area, and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside or not return home until it was lifted. Streets that normally bustle with activity on weekends were eerily quiet.
“We have all available resources” to find the suspect, Smiley said.
Seven of the nine wounded were listed as critical, according to Brown University Health.
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, before later saying that was not the case. The mayor said a person initially thought to be involved was detained but was later determined to have no involvement.
Nearly five hours after the shooting, officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness centre.
The shooting occurred near the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the university’s school of engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices.
Engineering design exams were under way in the building when the shooting occurred.
A police officer hangs yellow crime tape at the university.Credit: AP
Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4pm.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as a half-dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm. He said he feared for a friend who he thought was inside the engineering building at the time.
Students in a nearby lab hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.
Arriving at the White House on Marine One, US President Donald Trump said of the shooting: “What a terrible thing it is.” Credit: Bloomberg
Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee vowed that the shooter would be brought to justice. “We’re going to make sure that we catch the individual that brought so much suffering to so many people.”
The search for the suspect was hampered in part because downtown Providence was crowded with holiday shoppers and thousands of people attending concerts, local media said. Federal law enforcement and police from surrounding cities and towns were assisting in the search, officials said. According to local news reports, venues across the city were bringing in extra security.
US President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been briefed on the shooting and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims”.
Brown is a private institution with roughly 7300 undergraduate students and more than 3000 graduate students.
Police officers and first responders gather near the campus.Credit: AP
The Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as any incident in which four or more victims have been shot, has counted 389 of them this year in the US, including at least six such shootings at schools. Last year, the US had more than 500 mass shootings, according to the archive.
AP, Reuters
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