Journalism of Courage
The manhunt for the gunman who killed two Brown University students in a mass shooting on Saturday entered its fifth day on Wednesday, even as investigators struggle to identify the culprit, who was seen on several surveillance camera videos.
On Tuesday, the FBI had released a new video in which the suspected gunman was seen walking near police just moments after the deadly attack.
The video showed the suspect crossing Hope Street, as a police cruiser with its emergency lights flashing pulled up and stopping near the scene of the shooting.
Subsequent videos showed the suspect walking through a residential neighborhood near the campus before the shooting.
While the man in the footage is masked, officials hope someone might recognize his body, gait, movements or posture.
“Once we identify who this person is, I believe we’ll be able to locate him,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a Tuesday press conference. “It’s very hard to hide in this country.”
The shooting at Brown took place inside an engineering and physics building. The facility was expanded in recent years, but the attack occurred in the older part of the facility, officials said, where there are few or no cameras.
Cameras in the newer part of the building recorded the chaos that unfolded after the shooting, Neronha said, but did not capture any video of the gunman.
The building is at the edge of campus, which allowed the suspect to escape into the College Hill residential neighborhood, where there are few cameras aside from doorbell ones.
“Unfortunately here, given location and given the age of the building, we just don’t have additional footage,” Neronha said on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump also joined those questioning on Brown University not having more cameras in place.
“Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Brown has 1,200 security cameras, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson, who defended the school’s precautions and safety measures that were in place before the shooting at Tuesday’s press conference.
“Brown is deeply committed to the safety and security and wellbeing of our community, and I’ve been deeply saddened to see people questioning that,” Paxson said. “We understand that as time goes on there is maybe a natural instinct to assign responsibility for a tragic event like this…But the shooter is responsible.”
