Law enforcement officials are searching for a newly identified person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University, though the individual has not been publicly named and no charges have been filed.
New England law enforcement agencies recently identified the new person of interest and are attempting to locate that individual, CBS News reported.
The identification comes as investigators again consider whether the Brown shooting may be connected to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in Brookline, Massachusetts, two days later, according to the Associated Press.
Senior officials briefed on the investigation confirmed that a new person of interest has been identified, as per NBC News, which cited three law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
The Washington Post reported that authorities across multiple states are now coordinating their efforts, reflecting a broader reassessment of the scope of the investigation.
The shooting at Brown occurred shortly after 4 p.m. on Dec. 13, when a masked gunman dressed in black entered a lecture hall in the Barus and Holley engineering building and opened fire on students gathered for a review session ahead of final exams. Two students were killed — MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama — and nine others were injured. Six of the wounded remained hospitalized in stable condition as of Thursday afternoon.
The attack prompted an extensive law enforcement response, with hundreds of officers searching campus buildings and nearby streets while helicopters circled overhead. Despite the effort, the shooter escaped.
Investigators are also examining a possible link to the killing of Nuno F. G. Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was shot at his home in Brookline and pronounced dead two days after the Brown attack. Authorities had previously said there was no connection, but that assessment is now being revisited, The Providence Journal reported.
Police earlier detained a different person of interest in the Brown case. A 24-year-old man was taken into custody at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, on Dec. 14 and released early the next morning after forensic testing cleared him, as detailed by NBC10 Boston.
Authorities are now searching for the newly identified person of interest and a vehicle believed to have been rented by that individual. The vehicle matches the make and model of one connected to the Brookline homicide, and a regional police alert warned that the occupant could be armed and dangerous.
Investigators have released surveillance images and video of a person of interest and are asking the public for assistance. Authorities are expected to provide an update at a news briefing scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
