AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Police at Brown University and the city of Providence, Rhode Island, said this morning, a person of interest is under arrest after a shooting that killed two people and wounded nine. The shooting stunned the university and the city. Reporter Ian Donnis of Ocean State Media has been covering the story and joins us now from Providence. Good morning, Ian.
IAN DONNIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So what have police said about the person of interest?
DONNIS: This person was arrested overnight with investigators working continuously at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island. It's a semi-rural town about 26 miles southwest of Providence. It's unclear why that person was there. This is a man in his 30s that matches the description of the shooter. Beyond that, investigators have said very little about the suspect at this point and have not identified a motive.
RASCOE: Can you tell us what we know about how this shooting happened?
DONNIS: This happened in a classroom in a engineering and physics room on the Brown University campus yesterday. A active shooter alert went out around 4 p.m. The location was very specific. According to Brown University president Christina Paxson, students were taking an economics final exam there, and investigators were looking at why this took place there, but the shooter was able to walk out of the building and walk away into the surrounding neighborhood.
RASCOE: Do we know anything about the victims - who they are, what they were doing when this all happened? I know you said that this happened in a place where people were taking exams. Do we know anything, though, about who the victims are?
DONNIS: Very little has been released about the victims, including their identities. The two victims who were killed were Brown University students. Nine other people were injured. Eight of those were students, and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley talked about their condition during a news conference this morning.
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BRETT SMILEY: There remain seven individuals in stable condition, one in critical but stable condition, and one has been discharged. Those are the nine individuals injured yesterday.
RASCOE: So what is it like on the campus and around Providence this morning? How are people coping?
DONNIS: I think there's some relief that a suspect has been arrested. Of course, people are reeling emotionally. Mayor Smiley got very emotional talking about knowing intellectually that mass shootings happen in America but not expecting it to happen here in Providence and in Rhode Island. So President Paxson of Brown University spoke about the impact for the campus.
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CHRISTINA PAXSON: Everybody is reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us.
DONNIS: And that goes to the point that this is something that people will be dealing with for a long time. The university has marshaled counseling resources. Exams have been canceled for right now, and - but people are taking some relief in the news that a suspect has been arrested and a stay-in-place order has been lifted.
RASCOE: That's Ian Donnis of our member station Ocean State Media in Providence. Ian, thank you so much.
DONNIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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