Providence police release more surveillance video of suspect

A new image of the suspected Brown University mass shooter released by Providence police early Tuesday afternoon shows him carrying a crossbody sling bag.

The stocky man, said to be about 5-feet, 8-inches tall, had not been carrying anything in previously released images. He wears the same two-tone jacket, black medical face mask and dark colored hat he has on in videos released at a late afternoon briefing Monday. Police did not say when or where the image was captured.

Local, state, and federal officers continued to search for evidence near the campus Tuesday in their efforts to identify the man responsible for killing two students and wounding nine other people on Saturday around 4 p.m. 

Seven of the nine people treated for gunshot wounds remained at Rhode Island Hospital as of late Tuesday morning. Five were listed in critical stable condition, and one patient was listed in critical condition. One was listed as stable.

Law enforcement officials are relying on the public’s help to collect more information and surveillance recordings of the suspect. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual responsible.

Anyone who recognizes this individual, is asked by police to to contact the FBI through its online tip center or to call (401) 272-3121. 

Police released magnified video montage of the suspect at 4:30 p.m., ahead of press briefing scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Providence Public Safety Complex.

In the first video released Saturday night, a person dressed in dark clothing is seen walking away from the Barus and Holley engineering building from the Hope Street side and rounded the corner heading east on Waterman Street. He vanished into a residential neighborhood adjacent to the Ivy League campus.

FBI investigators early Tuesday afternoon walked along the suspect’s known path, rummaging through bushes, looking over fences, and interviewing residents outside the stately and Victorian-era homes near the crime scene.

While Brown University is dotted with cameras, there are few in the Barus and Holley building, multiple students told Rhode Island Current. 

Police were effectively the only people on campus Tuesday afternoon, with streets around Brown quiet as most students have left Providence.

Susan Alpert, who works the deli counter at the Metro Mart on Thayer Street, said the primary commercial hub for the university has effectively become a ghost town since Saturday.

New videos show suspect casing Brown campus and neighborhood before mass shooting

“This is normally an incredibly busy time here,” she said in an interview.

Up the block at the Brown University bookstore, one employee who declined to give her name noted that finals tend to be quiet. The only difference is there’s now a university police officer present at its entrance.

“Rhode Island has long watched the national epidemic of mass gun violence from a painful distance. This weekend, that distance disappeared,” read a joint message to the community released Tuesday from Providence City Council President Rachel Miller, President Pro Tempore Juan M. Pichardo and Majority Leader Pedro J. Espinal. 

“As we grieve, we are now united with communities across the country — Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Uvalde, and so many more — who know this kind of loss all too well. In time, we hope to honor the victims not only through remembrance, but by working together toward a safer world for everyone.”

‘They were at the beginning of a lot of things’

Brown University on Tuesday morning officially released the names of the two students who died in Saturday’s shooting in a message from President Christina Paxson. Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, of Midlothian, Virginia, a first-year student, were killed when the gunman entered a large auditorium where a review for an economics final was taking place.

Two Brown University students who lost their lives in campus shooting identified

“These were two young people whose amazing promise was extinguished too soon,” Paxson wrote. “Both were at or near the beginning of their Brown journey — actually, they were at the beginning of a lot of things.”

“Before releasing their names, it was important that we give their families some space to grieve, but now it is important that we never forget them,” Paxson continued. “I expect that, like me, many of you have begun reading about Ella and Mukhammad in news reports and on social media. None of those reports, nor anything that I share here, could ever begin to fully capture the totality of who they were, nor the enormity of who they never had the opportunity to become.”

Cook served as vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University and a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. An accomplished competitive pianist and church volunteer leader in her hometown near Birmingham, she was interested in French and Francophone studies.

Umurzokov dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon and planned to concentrate in biochemistry and molecular biology. He was a U.S. dual citizen from Uzbekistan who graduated from Midlothian High School where he served as president of the school’s Model United Nations chapter and captain of the Scholastic Bowl team. 

“Both were brilliant and beloved — as members of our campus community, but even more by their friends and families,” Paxson wrote. “Our hearts continue to be with them in their profound sorrow.”

Brown support staff in Campus Life and student leaders of the Undergraduate Council of Students among others are contributing ideas for how the campus will join together as a community to memorialize Cook and Umurzokov after classes resume after winter break, Paxson said. Details will become available in the weeks ahead but for now, a virtual interfaith prayer service for Wednesday is planned.

A GoFundMe fundraiser for Umurzokov’s family had raised nearly $437,000 from 9,300 donors as of mid afternoon on Tuesday.