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Update: Brown University Shooting – Ongoing Reports – Dec. 18, 2025
From Mayor Brett Smiley:
Dear Neighbor,
The act of violence that occurred on Saturday, at Brown University has deeply affected our city. In a place meant for learning and community, we were confronted with fear, loss and a tragedy we hoped never to see. As your mayor, I want you to know that we are grieving alongside the Brown University community. We stand with the victims and their families and remain fully committed to the ongoing investigation and the safety and well-being of every neighbor in Providence.
The investigation remains active. The Providence Police Department, in partnership with the FBI Boston Field Office and Rhode Island State Police, has released new footage related to a person of interest. Law enforcement continues to urge anyone with information to come forward. To support these efforts, the FBI is offering a reward of $50,000 for information leading to an arrest. Public safety is a shared responsibility, and community cooperation is critical to ensuring accountability and justice.
At this time, no additional threats have been identified since the incident. Our public safety teams and partners continue to monitor the situation closely, and we will provide timely and accurate updates as more information becomes available. We know many people across our city are still feeling the emotional impact of this tragedy. Mental health resources are available for victims, students, families and residents experiencing emotional distress. For neighbors who wish to offer support, verified donation resources for victims and their families, along with a list of local and national support services, are available on the City’s website.
Providence is a city that shows up for one another in moments of crisis. As your mayor, I urge anyone with information, no matter how small it may seem, to come forward. Your help is critical to advancing this investigation and bringing clarity, justice and healing to our community.
Tips can be submitted through the Providence Police Department Tip Line at 401-272-3121 or the FBI Tip Portal. To stay informed with the lates news and detailed updates, follow our official profiles on X, Instagram and Facebook. A centralized location for all digital media related to the investigation has been established here.
Together, by staying informed and vigilant, we will continue to protect our community and support those affected during this difficult time.
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PHOTOS:
Officials are asking people NOT to create AI generated images and share them on social media, which may not be accurate and/or will add to the confusion.
Please be advised that a centralized location for all digital media has been established here.
https://www.providenceri.gov/tips/
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse message: SHUT UP!
This video was posted, with a transcript sent,, as Senator Whitehouse presented this, live, at the US Senate Judiciary Committee. It met with a backlash of people feeling belittled, insulted and a backhanded message of – please help us – but you’re stupid – so shut up. We share it here:
Here is the transcript:
I just want to make clear that first of all this is a crime. This was a murder. Two murders so far. And it is an ongoing, active investigation. We don’t know who did it. We don’t know what motivated them. Speculation, particularly out on the internet, by people who have no idea what they are talking about, who have no clue about what is happening, is not helpful to the investigation. It gets people agitated and revved up and causes a lot of stupidity to cascade into tip lines that then law enforcement officials have to try to work through.
There is simply no need from an investigative point of view for people who have no idea what they’re talking about to offer their stupid and ill-informed views about what happened all over the internet. So I would please, just from a law enforcement perspective, ask anyone who sees this to just shut up until we know who did it and why. We will find out. Give it some time.
This wasn’t just a crime. It was also a tragedy. Two families who were looking forward to their college student, son and daughter, coming home for the holidays are now having to prepare funerals. They probably had already bought presents for their children. This has to come as perhaps the most savage blow that a parent can face.
And for the parents of the students who are still in the hospital and may well be in the hospital for some time through the holidays, all of their holiday plans have changed as well. They are not going to be around the tree with their kids. They will be in a hotel visiting a hospital room in a state far from home. So, give those families a bit of grace too. Ill-informed and unnecessary speculation about what went on does those families no good at all. Particularly not as they are trying to get through this immediate grief with the holidays ahead of them and all of their family expectations for those holidays now dashed into grief.
So, whether it is to protect the law enforcement investigation from a lot of unnecessary and ill-informed noise cluttering up the ability of the many agencies working on this to do their jobs, or whether it is out of simple courtesy and sympathy to the families that are going through this awful moment, just please shut up with the speculation. Sympathy and concern, reaching out helpfully, is always welcome. I’m grateful for the chairman calling attention to this in the way he did — the ranking member, I should say. But all the rest of this stuff, all the conspiracy theories, all the creepy, weird plot ideas, please just knock it off.
https://www.facebook.com/SheldonWhitehouse
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Providence Police – Call for New Person of Interest Identification
The PPD has released photos of a person known to have been in close proximity to the person of interest. If anyone know who this woman/man might be, co the all it in tip line at the PPD:
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Providence Business Assistance
The city’s Economic Development staff will be reaching out to local businesses who have lost business in this crisis – particularly in the Wayland Square, Thayer St areas – any business wanting more information should contact that department or the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
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Press Update – Dec. 17, 2025, (courtesy NBC10):
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Camera Footage Request
People within the blue lines who have house or business cameras are asked to go back for a week in their footage and forward anything that is of interest to the Providence Police Department:
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Brown University Responds Strongly to Critiques
After the internet and national news literally blew up overnight with critiques of the camera or lack of camera-coverage at Brown, the university sent this out:
Building Access: We would hope people understand that college campuses are more like cities than corporate headquarters or a school in a self-contained building with one or a few points of entry. Just like cities and communities across the country, most spaces on campuses do not have guards or gates at every point of access. In the daytime, most buildings on college campuses are open and accessible, while after hours, ID card swipes are required for entry. This is common across the nation and is the case at Brown for many buildings, including academic buildings, the campus center, athletics facilities and many facilities with administrative offices. Brown has heightened security on campus considerably in recent days, and we will do a large-scale systematic security review of the entire campus. We know we live in a different time.
Security Cameras: Brown has an expansive network of security cameras, with more than 1,200 cameras installed across campus buildings and spaces in both interior and exterior locations. Among other locations, these are deployed especially in high-traffic areas such as streets, sidewalks and campus walkways with significant foot traffic; and in academic and administrative buildings with an emphasis on entry and exit points. Brown’s security cameras do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory and office across the 250+ buildings on campus. For security reasons, it is not prudent to share where cameras are and are not relative to individual buildings and locations. What we can share is that Brown has and will continue to cooperate fully with the law enforcement agencies conducting this investigation. We have and will continue to provide investigators with any and all security camera footage they need, including from the engineering complex of three connected buildings that includes Barus & Holley, the Engineering Research Center and Prince Lab.
Emergency Notification Systems: We’ve seen some misunderstanding about our emergency alert systems. Our primary emergency notification system reached approximately 20,000 people minutes after Brown’s Department of Public Safety was notified about shots fired on our campus. It delivers urgent warnings quickly and effectively through phone, text and/or email. Sirens are a general, non-targeted system used for campus-wide emergencies including natural disasters. People who hear the siren are instructed to seek shelter by immediately entering buildings. Our public safety team made the decision not to deploy the siren to avoid inadvertently sending community members into the path of an active shooter who was reported to be in a University building complex. They used the BrownAlert system to alert people immediately and provide specific information on what location to avoid. At the same time, Brown’s officers were dispatched to the location of the reported shooter to immediately engage in response.
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READ prior stories since Day One of the Brown Shooting, HERE:
UPDATED: Brown University Shooting – Ongoing Reports – Dec. 17, 2025
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Providence Police Tip Line: 401-272-3121
FBI Tip Line: fbi.gov/brownuniversityshooting