FBI, police still hunting Brown University mass shooter 5 days later - National & International News - WED 17Nov2025 -

Police still hunting Brown University mass shooter 5 days later

On Saturday, an unknown gunman opened fire with a 9mm handgun in a classroom at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Two students were killed, MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, and Ella Cook, 19, and 9 others were injured. Friends and family have described Umurzokov and Cook as kind people who loved helping others. Five days later, their killer is nowhere to be found.

Police say their investigation has been hampered by a lack of surveillance cameras in the campus building where the shooting occurred and nearby areas. Authorities have released a grainy image of the person of interest taken from a doorbell camera in a nearby residential neighborhood. It appears to be a man about 5’8″ with a stocky build, wearing a black face mask, a black beanie and a two-tone jacket. He was captured on video walking in the neighborhood hours before the shooting and immediately after it. A second person of interest was found but was quickly cleared of involvement.

The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture. There is little to go on since no image has been captured of his face, but police are hoping someone will recognize the man’s clothing or his gait. They are also asking the public and surrounding businesses to search through any surveillance footage they have to see if they can identify the person in the area days before the shooting.

Police do not have any lead on a motive and do not believe that any of the victims were specifically targeted.

On Monday, two days after the Brown shooting, an MIT professor was fatally shot in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, just over an hour away. His killer also remains at large, but police have not identified any connection between the two shootings.

Community on edge

The university has cancelled finals and many of the students have left. Those that remain on campus and in the surrounding community are on edge and vigilant. Some have criticized the police investigation and the university itself for security failures. Police believe the shooter was walking around casing the area for hours before the shooting. Video captured him in the area around 10:30 AM and the shooting did not take place until 4 PM.

Some students have suggested the killer may have had knowledge of the campus. Brown University has 1200 security cameras, but only a few in the building where the shooting took place. The building is also at the edge of the campus, making it easy for the assailant to disappear into the nearby residential areas. Students have also mentioned that a door of the building (which normally requires a key card to enter) is often left propped open.

Mass shooters are usually quickly killed or captured. On Wednesday, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez acknowledged that the Brown University shooter “could be anywhere. We still don’t know who the person is or where he is”.