The attack set of hours of chaos surrounding the Ivy League campus.
A person of interest has been arrested after a shooting during final exams that left two students dead and nine others wounded at Brown University in the US.
The attack on Saturday afternoon (Sunday AEST) set off hours of chaos across the Ivy League campus and surrounding Providence neighbourhoods as 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 on Sunday, but authorities had not yet released information about a potential motive.
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Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference that the person in custody was aged in their 30s and that investigators were not searching for anyone else.
He declined to say whether the detained person had any connection to Brown. The person was taken into custody at a Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 32km from Providence, where police officers and FBI agents remained on Sunday, blocking off a hallway with crime scene tape as they searched the area.
The shooting occurred during one of the busiest moments of the academic calendar, as final exams were underway.
Brown cancelled all remaining classes, exams, papers and projects for the semester and told students they were free to leave campus, underscoring the scale of the disruption and the gravity of the attack.
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the university’s engineering building, firing more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
As of Sunday morning, authorities had not recovered a firearm but did find two loaded 30-round magazines, the official said. The official was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
“Everybody’s reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us,” Brown University President Christina Paxson said at a news conference. “Our community’s strong and we’ll get through it, but it’s devastating.”
As of Sunday morning, one student had been released from the hospital, Paxson said. Seven others were in critical but stable condition and one was in critical condition.
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Some businesses remain closed in shocked city
Many area businesses announced that they would remain closed on Sunday. A scheduled 5km run was postponed until next weekend. Providence leaders said residents would notice a heavier police presence.
“We all, intellectually, knew it could happen anywhere, including here, but that’s not the same as it happening in our community, and so this is an incredibly upsetting and emotional time for Providence, for Brown, for all of us," Mayor Brett Smiley said at the news conference. “It's not something that we should have to train for, but we have.”
Crystal McCollaum, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was staying at the hotel where the arrest occurred. She was with her daughter to attend a cheerleading competition in Providence, but after hearing about the shooting, she thought they would be safer staying outside the city.
“It was just weird and scary,” she said.
Exams were underway during shooting
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom at the Barus and Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. The building includes more than 100 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 said.
Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side. Once she realised they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she waited for hours.
Surveillance video released by police showed a suspect, dressed in black, walking from the scene.
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Former ‘Survivor’ contestant just left the building
Eva Erickson, a doctoral candidate who was the runner-up earlier this year on reality show Survivor, said she left her lab in the engineering building 15 minutes before shots rang out.
The engineering and thermal science student 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 student 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 said, watching through the window as armed officers surrounded his dorm.
Students hid under desks
Students in a nearby lab turned off the lights and hid under desks after receiving an alert, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about from where the shooting occurred.
Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.
“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the US, is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges with roughly 7300 undergraduates and more than 3000 graduate students.
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