Police released images Monday night of a "person of interest" taken two hours before the shooting, showing a person wearing a black mask.
The Brown University students killed in a mass shooting Saturday were identified as Ella Cook and Mohammad Aziz Umurzokov. LinkedIn; American Uzbekistan Association via Instagram
The family of Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, the Uzbek student who was killed on campus, has raised more than $410,000 to cover the expenses from his death and launch a charity in his name.
So far, the fund has received almost 9,000 donations.
A GoFundMe account launched by his younger sister, Samira Umurzokova, described him as “incredibly kind, funny, and smart” and said he had “big dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon and helping people.”
Gloria-Jean Masciarotte, who teaches at Rhode Island School of Design and lives near Brown University, said she hopes the shooting doesn’t traumatize Providence.
“This is my home, and I shouldn’t feel scared,” she said.
Masciarotte, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown, said she has concerns that the manhunt has stretched into its fourth day.
“I think that is going to go unsolved for many years,” she said. “And I think that one of the sad things is, I hope it doesn’t impact the community life and our openness and our sharing.”
Law enforcement officials released a video timeline this afternoon showing the movement of a person of interest in the shooting. The first clip shows the person walking east on Manning Street and turning onto Cooke Street.
The second clip shows the person walking east toward Governor Street, while video clip three shows him walking west toward Cooke Street.
Additional videos show the person continuing to walk down Cooke and Hope streets.
Brown senior Eugenia Zinovieva said the past few days have been “really heavy.”
“I think we’re all definitely still processing,” she said. “The people that are still on campus are trying to spend a lot of time together in the community.”
Zinovieva said that the community is close and that people have been relying on one another.
“It really feels like everyone was affected by this,” she said. “The campus is so tight-knit, so having something like this happen is just, I mean, no one ever thought it would happen here.”
Providence police released a new photo this afternoon of a man described as a person of interest in the shooting.
John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty Images
John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty Images
Flowers and photos were placed for a memorial for shooting victims Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook outside the Barus and Holley building on the campus of Brown University today.
John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty Images
Jensine Coggin, a Ph.D. engineering student at Brown, was on the third floor of the Engineering Research Center when a gunman opened fire in the Barus and Holley building, killing two students and wounding nine others.
Coggin said an undergraduate student told her what was happening. They initially left the research center, which is connected to the building, but felt it was unsafe to be outside.
“We’re thinking the best place to be is in a building, you know, secluded from everything,” she said.
Coggin recounted running into armed law enforcement officers who were responding to the shooting.
“We walk into the lobby … and Adam, he went in front of me, and he turned the corner, and all of a sudden I hear safeties going off of guns and radios, and everyone’s, like, hands in the air,” she said. “It was, like, eight cops, and we walk out, and there’s, like, eight guns pointed at us. They’re like: ‘Where have you been? What are you doing here? Who are you? Did you see anything?’ And they start patting us down and everything. And then they’re like: ‘You need to get outside right now. Run as fast as you can.'”
She said they ran until they got to the dorms.
Coggin said the engineering building is packed with students on the weekend, studying or working on their laptops. Usually, people have to scan their ID cards to get into the building, but on Saturday, the door had been propped open.
“On the weekends, everybody’s there. … So they prop doors open, people let people in,” she said.
The shooting has shaken her, she said.
“It makes you nervous to walk around.”
University President Christina Paxson said Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, who were killed, were both “brilliant and beloved.”
Umurzokov, who was in his first semester, was “known for being driven, conscientious and disciplined,” Paxson said in a letter to the school community today.
“A first-year student, he arrived this fall with a passion for medicine born from a personal experience, and he planned to concentrate in biochemistry and molecular biology to help realize his dream of becoming a doctor. His friends and family have spoken of his clear commitment to serving others,” she said.
Umurzokov graduated from Midlothian High School in Virginia. Paxson said she has been “moved by his current and former classmates’ descriptions of him as someone who generously shared his intelligence, humor, and kindness with all those who knew him.”
Cook, from Alabama, was an accomplished competitive pianist and a volunteer leader for Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, as well as the vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University and a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, Paxson said.
“These were two young people whose amazing promise was extinguished too soon,” her letter read. “Both were at or near the beginning of their Brown journey — actually, they were at the beginning of a lot of things.”
The urown University announced that the men’s and women’s basketball games scheduled for Sunday have been canceled. The men’s team was scheduled to play at the University of Southern California.
“The entire USC community sends its support to Brown University following the tragedy that has impacted its students, staff, alumni and the city of Providence,” USC Men’s Basketball said on on X.
Brown’s women’s team was scheduled to play Monmouth University at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence. Monmouth said it “extends its thoughts and support” to Brown.
The FBI said agents and analysts are working closely with law enforcement partners to identify the shooter.
The agency’s evidence response team and FBI laboratory specialists are also assisting with processing and documenting evidence from the scene, the agency said on X.
“As the investigation develops, the FBI will continue to provide assets, resources, and personnel to support our partners in seeking justice for the victims and their loved ones,” it said.
A gathering to honor the victims will take place this evening, Providence City Council member Sue AnderBois said on Facebook.
She described it as a “community service of lament, healing and hope.” It will be held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on campus.
“Community leaders will offer reflection as we gather together to grieve and the St Stephen’s Choir will provide poignant music,” AnderBois said. “All are welcome.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset Friday in honor of victim Ella Cook.
Cook, 19, from Alabama, was killed in Saturday’s shooting at Brown University.
“As all of Alabama wraps our arms around Ella’s family in prayer, I also join in mourning her loss,” the governor said in a post on X.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez talk to NBC News about the ongoing search for the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting, which killed two and injured nine others. They also addressed the release of new photos and videos of the person of interest.
Investigators continue to search for the person responsible for fatally shooting two Brown University students and wounding nine others in an attack Saturday.
Last night, the Providence Police Department released photos and videos showing a “person of interest” wearing a black mask and hat, dressed in dark clothing. Police asked for the public’s help in identifying the person.
The FBI’s Boston field office said in a post on X that there is a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the school shooter.
“Our agents and analysts remain fully embedded with our law enforcement partners. We are working together to track down leads, canvass neighborhoods, and develop intelligence,” FBI Boston said.
The two students killed in the shooting were identified as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, from Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, and Ella Cook, from Alabama. Cook’s priest said during a Sunday service that she was “an incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light.” Umurzokov’s sister, Rukhsora Umurzokova, said he had a “huge personality” and dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon.
In Providence, Rhode Island, authorities are releasing new video and asking the public for help identifying the person of interest in connection with the killing of two students. Nine other people were injured.
NBC News