Authorities in Rhode Island have taken a man into custody as a “person of interest” in connection with the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine others injured during final exams at the Ivy League institution.
At a press conference on Sunday, December 14, 2025, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez confirmed that the suspect, a man in his 20s, was arrested at a hotel in Coventry, about 30 minutes from the Brown campus. Perez declined to provide additional details but said investigators were not seeking other suspects at this time.
City public safety spokesperson Kristy DosReis said detectives expected the man to be formally charged later Sunday evening.
Several U.S. media outlets, including The Washington Post and NBC News, identified the man as Benjamin Erickson, a 24-year-old military veteran previously living in Wisconsin. Military officials told Reuters that a Benjamin W. Erickson served as a U.S. Army infantryman from May 2021 to November 2024, leaving service as a specialist without any deployments, though they could not confirm if he was the same person now in custody.
FBI Tracks Suspect Using Cell Data
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, who posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, federal agents used cellular geolocation data to track the suspect to the Coventry hotel, where he was apprehended without incident by an FBI tactical team.
The mass shooting—one of nearly 400 incidents of gun violence recorded in the United States this year by the Gun Violence Archive—has shaken the Brown University community. The school canceled classes and final exams for the remainder of the semester as police continued their investigation.
A light snowfall blanketed the usually lively Providence campus on Sunday, which remained quiet and under heavy police presence.
Community in Mourning
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said some victims’ families had not yet been notified because they were traveling. He urged the community to come together at a pre-planned Christmas and Hanukkah lighting ceremony, saying:
“It is quite clear that if we can come together as a community and shine a little bit of light tonight, there’s nothing better that we could be doing.”
Seven of the injured were reported to be in stable condition, one remained critical but stable, and another had been discharged, according to Smiley.
The shelter-in-place order for the campus and surrounding areas was lifted Sunday afternoon, though Smiley warned residents to expect a visible police presence throughout the city in the coming days.
The Attack
The gunman opened fire on Saturday afternoon in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, where exams were underway. The outer doors to the facility were unlocked, but individual classrooms required badge access, officials said.
Police released surveillance footage showing a man dressed in black walking near the building shortly after the attack. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said the individual may have been wearing a mask, though this could not be confirmed.
Brown University President Christina Paxson told reporters that nearly all the victims were students, adding:
“This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has.”
Students Recount Chaos
Ref Bari, a 22-year-old graduate student, said he was in the building when he heard several loud pops.
“She trusted me,” he said, recalling how another student let him hide in her apartment after they fled the scene. “The only connection between us is we’re both students at Brown, but beyond that, we don’t know each other.”
Teaching assistant Joseph Oduro, 21, said he was standing in front of the classroom when bullets struck the chalkboard.
“The first couple of gunshots went straight to the chalkboard right where I was standing,” he told CNN. “Who knows, if I didn’t duck, maybe I’m not here today.”
A student next to him was shot twice in the leg and was scheduled for surgery on Sunday.
Another student, Jack DiPrimio, said the lockdown felt eerily familiar.
“I had faced so many lockdowns in high school and even a few at my undergrad, so I wasn’t that worried at first,” he said in a TikTok video. “Maybe I was desensitized.”
A Campus in Shock
Founded in 1764, Brown University is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions in the United States, with 7,300 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students.
As investigators piece together the motive, the Brown community continues to grieve—its year-end academic season transformed into a moment of collective sorrow and disbelief.
