Police respond to an active shooter in the engineering building on the Brown University campus. Wheeler Cowperthwaite / USA Today Network via Imagn Images
All Buffalo Bills players and staff remained in their hotel Saturday night, team sources told The Athletic, after a gunman shot and killed two students and injured nine others inside an engineering building at Brown University, less than 2 miles from where the team was staying Saturday night.
The Bills were staying nearby in downtown Providence, R.I., ahead of Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
A person of interest in the shooting was detained early Sunday, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said. Officials said that the person in custody is in their 30s, but did not give any other information.
The university sent out an alert at 4:22 p.m. telling students and faculty to shelter in place after reports of an active shooter at the Barus and Holley engineering building, and the search for the shooter stretched into early Sunday morning.
The Patriots and Bills were in communication since news of the shooting first arose, sources told The Athletic. The Patriots sent out a statement on social media not long after the shooting, expressing their sympathy to all of those involved.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected and their families, and we remain grateful to the first responders and law enforcement who acted swiftly to protect the students, faculty, staff and the community,” the statement read.
