President Trump blamed Brown University for the delay in locating the suspect in the fatal shooting on the school’s campus in Rhode Island on Saturday.
“You’d really have to ask the school a little bit more about that because this was school problem,” Trump said when asked on Monday if FBI Director Kash Patel has told him why it’s been difficult for the FBI to identify the suspected shooter.
“They had their own guards. 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,” he said.
On Sunday, authorities said they had detained a person of interest in the Brown University shooting based on a tip that they said specifically identified the individual, whose name was then leaked to the press.
Government and law enforcement authorities said in a press conference on Sunday afternoon that there was insufficient evidence to keep the person in custody, adding that evidence suggests the individual was not a person of interest.
Former New York City Police Department Commissioner John Miller said in a CNN interview on Sunday that he believes there is friction between the FBI and local police over the situation.
“Has there been some friction between the Providence police and the FBI today over this? I’m going to tell you there has been,” Miller said.