A person of interest was arrested early Sunday morning in connection with the fatal shooting at Brown University, according to Kristy DosReis, spokeswoman for the Providence Police Department.
The person in custody was captured around 3:45 a.m. at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 28 miles south of Providence, according to law enforcement sources and Coventry police.
According to sources, at the time of the arrest the person was allegedly in possession of two firearms.
“We have detained a person of interest,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said at a news conference Sunday morning. “We are setting up shelter in place.”
Rhode Island law enforcement officials said no one else is wanted in Saturday’s shooting at the Ivy League campus that killed two people and wounded nine, according to officials.
Providence residents can “breathe a little easier,” Smiley said.
Law enforcement officers walk through a neighborhood near Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 13, 2025.
Steven Senne/AP
According to sources, a tip from the public led police to the location where the person of interest was arrested.
A federal source told ABC News that at this time the person was only being called a person of interest, but added that they were confident they were on the right path.
The detained person is not a student at the university, sources familiar with the situation said.
The person was taken into custody hours after Saturday’s mass shooting on the school’s East Side campus. Two students were shot and killed and nine others were transported to local hospitals with injuries amid a day of “devastating gun violence,” university president Christina H. Paxson said in a statement released just before 2 a.m. ET.
“Our hearts go out to them. This is a day of tremendous pain,” Paxson said. “No parent or family member should have to endure a day like this.”
Eight of the nine injured remained in the hospital as of Sunday morning, authorities said, adding that seven of them were in stable condition and one was in critical but stable condition.
This video taken from a CCTV camera released by the Providence Police Department shows the suspect in the Brown University shooting walking down a street near the campus in Providence on December 13, 2025.
Handout/Providence Police Department/AFP via Getty Images
Providence police lifted the shelter-in-place order that had been put in place for the university’s College Hill campus early Sunday, the school said in an alert to students at 5:42 a.m. ET, adding that “police activity continues in areas still considered an active crime scene.”
Saturday’s fatal shooting on the city’s East Side came as students in the College Hill area were preparing for or taking exams before winter break.
The shooting took place at Barus School. & Holley Building, where engineering and physics classes are taught, on Hope Street, officials said.
The shooting took place in a conference room during final exam review, according to Paxson.
The FBI and other law enforcement officials had shared a short video clip of someone they described as a person of interest. The person in the clip can be seen wearing dark clothing, including what appeared to be a hood, as he walks down Hope Street and turns a corner to the north.
The person’s right hand appeared to be in his jacket pocket as he walked north on Waterman Street before exiting the frame.
Jessica Gorman of ABC News contributed to this report.
