President Trump on Wednesday attacked Brown University over what he claimed was a lack of security cameras after the FBI faced criticism for arresting a person in connection with a fatal shooting who was later released due to insufficient evidence.
“Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!”
University spokesperson Brian Clark told The Hill in a statement that the campus has “an expansive network of security cameras, with more than 1,200 cameras installed across campus buildings and spaces in both interior and exterior locations.”
He added that the cameras are deployed in high-traffic areas such as streets, sidewalks and campus hallways, as well as the entry and exit points of buildings.
“Brown’s security cameras do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory and office across the 250+ buildings on campus,” Clark said. “For security reasons, it is not prudent to share where cameras are and are not relative to individual buildings and locations.”
The spokesperson continued, “What we can share is that Brown has and will continue to cooperate fully with the law enforcement agencies conducting this investigation.”
He also noted that the university has and “will continue to provide investigators with any and all security camera footage they need, including from the engineering complex of three connected buildings that includes Barus & Holley, the Engineering Research Center and Prince Lab.”
The school alerted its students and campus faculty of an active shooter near the Barus and Holley engineering building Saturday afternoon.
Trump previously blamed Brown for the delay in locating the shooting suspect, calling it a “school problem.”
“They had their own guards,” the president said Monday. “They had their own police. They had their own everything, but you’d have to ask that question really to the school, not to the FBI. We came in after the fact, and the FBI will do a good job, but they came in after the fact.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha disagreed with Trump’s claim and added that the FBI “came in after the fact.”
“No one can foresee these events,” Neronha told CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Monday. “We try to harden institutions around this state, around the city, my hometown, small town. But you can never harden them against all threats.”
“This isn’t a Brown problem, it’s a national problem, a symptom that happened here in Rhode Island,” he added.
The FBI used cellphone data to arrest a person of interest on Sunday in its investigation of the shooting, which left two people dead and nine injured. Providence, R.I., Police Chief Oscar Perez initially announced the arrest early on Sunday, following an FBI tip, before later saying there was no basis to believe the person in custody was a suspect.
On Monday, Providence police and the FBI released new photos and video of a new person of interest. The person is seen in a dark green and gray jacket, dark shoes, dark pants, a dark beanie and a dark face mask.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for the shooting. Authorities described the suspect as a man with a stocky build at roughly 5 feet, 8 inches tall.
Lawmakers have condemned the shooting, including Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who said the incident “shook the entire state.”