FBI releases video of Brown University shooting suspect, offers $50,000 for ‘any information’

The gunman killed two people on Saturday during exams at Brown University. He is still wanted and considered “armed and dangerous” by the police.

Police are seeking help to identify him. The police therefore released this Tuesday a video of several minutes of the man, whose identity remains unknown on the fourth day of the investigation, suspected of having fatally shot two students and of having injured nine others on Saturday at the American Brown University.

“We are asking the public to observe body movements, posture… This could help identify this individual,” Colonel Oscar Perez, police chief of the city of Providence, in the state of Rhode Island (northeast), where this elite university is located, commented at a press conference.

The suspect, “measuring approximately 1.73 m, of stocky build” according to investigators, appears dressed in dark colors, his face covered with a surgical mask and wearing a cap, walking in the streets near the university.

Oscar Perez also asked residents and motorists to share possible surveillance videos dating back up to a week before the incident. He said he had already received nearly 200 “actionable reports” from the public.

Photos posted in the morning on the FBI’s X account also show agents on the ground, searching trash cans and raking snow on a lawn. They “contribute to the processing and documentation of material elements from the crime scene” and work with local law enforcement “to follow leads and gather information in order to identify the person responsible,” said the federal judicial police agency.

“The investigation is going very well”

On Monday, investigators also asked to hear from all the people present in the building where the shooting occurred, on the day of the incident and the day before. “From my point of view, the investigation, difficult in a case like this, is going very well,” state Attorney General Peter Neronha assured the media on Tuesday. “You just need a little patience, as difficult as that is to say in this horrible context. »

A reward of $50,000 was promised “for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the perpetrator”, considered “armed and dangerous”.

The gunman opened fire Saturday in the engineering and physics building at Brown University, where exams were being held, killing two people. The first, Ella Cook, originally from Alabama, was a sophomore and involved in the Republican Party. The second, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an American and Uzbek citizen, was in his first year. He wanted to become a neurosurgeon.

Among the nine injured, one is still in critical condition, five are in critical but stable condition, one is in stable condition, and two have been able to leave the hospital, it was specified at a press conference. Their identity was not shared “for privacy reasons,” Brown University President Christina Paxson explained in a message on Tuesday.

A “virtual interfaith prayer vigil” is planned for Wednesday to pay tribute to the victims.

Debate on gun carrying

On Sunday, a man was arrested, before being released due to lack of incriminating evidence. Late Tuesday, Brown released a statement denouncing accusations made on social media against one of its students.

“If this person’s name had any relevance to the ongoing investigation, (law enforcement) would actively seek out this person and release information publicly,” the university insisted.

This killing fuels the recurring debate on the carrying of weapons, guaranteed by the Constitution and to which many Americans remain very attached. With more firearms in circulation than people, the United States has the highest gun death rate of any developed country.

In 2024, more than 16,000 people, not including suicides, were killed by firearms, according to the Gun Violence Archive website. The deadliest school shooting in the country’s history took place in April 2007: a student shot 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University before committing suicide.