PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The investigation into the Brown University mass shooting has dragged on for more than four days with no named suspect, motive, weapon or even a clear image of the assailant’s face that might help bring them to justice.
Investigators have been hobbled by the lack of clear eyewitness accounts of the shooter and few, if any, cameras in the wing of the building where the attack happened. Despite these difficulties, frustration was mounting Wednesday over the lack of progress.
Here are some answers to questions about the attack and investigation:
How many students were shot? Who were they?
The attack on Saturday killed two students and wounded nine others. They were studying for a final in a first-floor classroom in an older section of the engineering building when the gunman walked in and opened fire.
The students who were killed were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Cook, whose funeral is Monday, was active in her Alabama church and served as vice president of the Brown College Republicans. Umurzokov’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a child, and he aspired to be a doctor.
As for the wounded, one remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday and six were in stable condition, Rhode Island Hospital said. The other two were discharged.
Why hasn’t the shooter been caught?
The attack plunged the Ivy League school’s campus into chaos, and there was initial confusion in the immediate aftermath. Authorities announced early Sunday that they had detained a person of interest, but they released the person hours later after determining he didn’t do it.
Police officials insist the man’s detention didn’t stop them from continuing to investigate other leads before his release.
Authorities have released several security videos of a person they think might have carried out the attack. The videos, some of which are grainy, were captured by security cameras on streets near the campus in the hours and minutes before or after the attack. They show the individual standing, walking and even running along the streets, but their face is masked or turned away in all of them.
Brown has been criticized for lacking campus video of the attacker. University President Christina Hull Paxson has defended the school’s response, saying Brown is deeply committed to its students’ safety and well-being, and pointing out that there are 1,200 cameras on campus.
The state attorney general said the wing of the building where the attack happened has few “if any” cameras, and investigators believe the shooter entered and left through a door that faces a residential street bordering campus, which might explain why the cameras Brown does have didn’t capture footage of the person.
Have authorities said they’re sure the masked person was the attacker?
They have not. They have stopped short of calling them a suspect, referring to them, too, as a person of interest.
What did we know about the person in the video?
Very little, aside from what we see of them in the video footage. Investigators have described the person as being about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall and stocky.
Why were Brown, that building and classroom attacked?
We still don’t know. Although police said this week that they believe Brown was targeted and that the videos suggest the masked person was casing the building, no one has taken credit for the attack and investigators apparently still hadn’t identified a suspect as of Wednesday.
On Tuesday, police asked the public to look through any video they might have from the week before the attack, believing the shooter might have cased the scene during that time. The engineering building borders a residential street, and authorities believe the person entered and left through an entrance on that side of the building.
Brown also cautioned people to refrain from accusing people online of having any link to the attack, after it said such speculation led to a student being doxed — their identifying information was posted.
How was the Brown community alerted to the attack?
Paxson said the university has two security systems. One is activated at a time of emergency and sent out text messages, phone calls and emails that, in this shooting, reached 20,000 people. The other system features three sirens across campus, but Paxson said that would not be activated in an active shooter situation.
“It depends on the circumstances and where the active shooter would be, but you don’t want to ever get people rushing into buildings that might be the site of an active shooter,” she said.
How many students were in the classroom and how many did police interview?
Police haven’t released that information.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Kimberlee Kruesi, Amanda Swinhart, Robert F. Bukaty, Matt O’Brien and Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Michael Casey in Boston; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington.
