Benjamin Erickson, 24, has been reportedly identified as a "person of interest" in the mass shooting that rocked Brown University in the US on Saturday, NBC News reported, citing law enforcement officials.
FBI Director Kash Patel, in a post on X on Sunday, said that law enforcement had detained a person of interest in a hotel room in the Rhode Island town of Coventry, a 30-minute drive from the Brown campus.
"An FBI team specialising in cellular data analysis used geolocation information to track the suspect," Patel said.
Several news media outlets, including the Washington Post and NBC News, cited unnamed sources identifying the man as 24-year-old Benjamin Erickson, who previously resided in Wisconsin.
Detectives anticipated that the person in custody would be formally charged Sunday night, according to city public safety spokesperson Kristy DosReis, as quoted by Reuters.
Who is Benjamin Erickson?
A military spokesperson told NBC News that Benjamin Erickson had served as an infantryman in the US Army from May 2021 to November 2024.
The spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Ruth Castro, was quoted as saying, "He has no deployments and left the Army in the rank of specialist."
Public records showed that he was living in Washington DC in 2024 and had also been a resident of Wisconsin in 2020.
As per the report, Erickson was registered to vote in Washington DC in 2023 with a "statehood" party affiliation. Previous records reportedly showed he was registered to vote in Wisconsin in 2020, listing "military" under voter information.
Sources told NBC that authorities are looking into what might be an extensive mental health history for Erickson. Any connection with Brown University is also being investigated.
Brown University shooting
Two students were killed, and nine others sustained injuries in the Brown University shooting that took place amid year-end final exams at the Ivy League school on Saturday.
The gunman fled after shooting students in a classroom in Brown's Barus and Holley engineering and physics building, where outer doors had been left unlocked while exams were taking place, officials said on Saturday.
Authorities on Saturday had released a short video clip of a person of interest dressed in black walking near the engineering building.
Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O'Hara said on Saturday the individual may have worn a mask, but officials were not certain.
