A man who had been identified as a person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University is being released, authorities said Sunday night.
At a news conference Sunday night, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said the evidence now “points in a different direction.”
"I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another and that’s exactly what has happened," Neronha said.
The man had been detained for less than 24 hours before investigators apparently determined he was not the shooter.
“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
RELATED STORY | 'Really angry': Parkland survivor recounts Brown University mass shooting
Two people were killed and nine others were injured in Saturday's attack. One victim remains in critical condition, seven others are listed as critical but stable, and another person has been discharged from a local hospital.
The shooting occurred in the Barus and Holley engineering building as final exams were taking place.
"We have a generation of kids who have done active shooter trainings," Smiley said on Sunday. "That was not something I had to do when I was a kid. And we all, I think, maybe, intellectually, we knew it could happen anywhere, including here. But that's not the same as it happening in our community."
Authorities have not said whether all of the victims were students.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the shooting, saying on Saturday, “All we can do at this time is pray for those who are injured.”
