Rhode Island authorities admitted on Wednesday that the Brown University gunman “could be anywhere” and that they have “zero” information on a possible motive as fear and criticism mount after five days of searching for the killer.
Providence cops have gotten so desperate for new leads that they released blurry photos of someone who might have come into contact with the shooter — even as they insisted they aren’t discouraged about the slow pace of their investigation.
Officials provided what little updates they had during their latest press briefing Wednesday night, during which Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha got defensive at times and the local police chief offered up contradictory information about their probe.
“No one’s discouraged,” said Neronha, pledging that an “enormous amount of energy” is being devoted to the case, and vowing that the still-at-large suspect accused of killing two students and wounding nine others “will be caught.”
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez called the ongoing search for the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting “the most intense investigation going on in this nation” that will require the public’s assistance as well as “good old-fashioned police work” to crack.
“We are using every resource we have to find this suspect and bring him to justice,” said FBI special agent in charge Ted Docks. “Whether the subject has left the state or even left the country,” he assured.
Reporters peppered Perez with questions about evidence uncovered during the investigation, the chief initially saying they’ve “found no items of interest so far.”
But Perez later said after conducting extensive searches both inside and outside the academic building where the shooting took place “we have both seized and found physical evidence.”
A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from The Post seeking clarification.
Neronha grew combative with a reporter who was pressing him about why some security footage collected from Brown was not made public.
“If we get a better image of who committed this crime you’ll have it. There is no effort to preclude the public, online investigators, investigators in the press from getting to the result faster than we can,” the AG said. “We are giving you the best evidence we can to identify this person.”
At a press conference earlier in the day, Neronha said authorities have “zero” information regarding a potential motive in the killings.
It’s been five days since the brutal slayings on the Ivy League campus, and the only leads made public so far are a handful of grainy security camera stills and video showing the apparent suspect walking the streets of Providence both before and after the shooting.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said another victim has been discharged, leaving one hospitalized survivor in critical but stable condition and five others in stable condition.
Brown University Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman told reporters that there was no security posted at the Barus & Holley building when the gunman opened fire, saying the lack of security presence was “typical for that academic space.”
Criticism has also started growing about how an elite university with an $8 billion endowment had no security cameras where the killings took place.
Even President Trump has started to raise questions: “Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!” he posted on Truth Social.
Brown University’s Providence campus has around 1,200 security cameras, according to president Christina Paxson, but the Barus & Holley building, which was completed in 1965, only has cameras at the front part of the building, which was renovated around five years ago, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters Tuesday.
“So, there’s the back part of the building, the old part, and the front part, the new part,” Neronha said.
“The shooting occurs in the old part towards the back … and that older part of the building, there are fewer, if any, cameras in that location, I imagine, because it’s an older building.”
The 220,000 square-foot, seven-story building houses the School of Engineering and the Physics Department. It includes 117 laboratories, 150 offices, 15 classrooms, 29 laboratory classrooms and 3 lecture halls, according to the university’s website.
Brown campus security did not respond to an inquiry by The Post about the apparent gaps in camera coverage, or whether they plan to install additional cameras in the wake of the mass shooting, in which students Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, and Ella Cook, 19, were killed.
The Elizabeth Hazard Sturges House, which serves as the school president’s official residence, appears to have several security cameras installed despite being built in 1922 and sold to the University in 1947, the Brown Daily Herald writes.
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