Stumbles in the search for a Brown University shooter led to the wrong man

By Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — On Sunday morning, as investigators rushed to prepare a search warrant for a hotel room in Coventry, Rhode Island, FBI Director Kash Patel broke the news on social media celebrating that a person of interest had been detained in the Brown University mass shooting.

Around the same time, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced the man’s detention from a podium, telling residents they can “breathe a little easier.”

It turned out to be the wrong man.

Patel’s announcement, made in a post on X, highlighted the role of the FBI in using cellphone tower data to find the alleged person of interest. By that time, however, some investigators already knew that the person of interest’s cellphone was never identified at the scene of the shooting, casting doubt on the man’s involvement, three people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Within hours, those doubts grew as investigators determined that tests on shell casings found at the scene of the shooting didn’t match the DNA of the person of interest, two of the sources said. Two handguns found in the hotel room of the person of interest also didn’t match ballistics of the casings, and a residue test on the man’s hands came back negative, the sources said.

The man detained was released later Sunday.

“It’s fair to say that there is no basis to consider him a person of interest,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Sunday of the man who was detained. “So that’s why he’s being released.”

To be sure, the Brown University shooting is a local and state-led investigation and the FBI’s role is to assist. After tensions over the weekend, officials regrouped Monday and Patel dispatched more resources to Providence to support the investigation.

The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for tips leading to the identification and conviction of the shooter.

Patel’s Sunday post on X, saying, “We activated the Cellular Analysis Survey Team, to provide critical geolocation capabilities,” projected precise investigative work and confidence that investigators were homing in on the person responsible.

Such cellphone tower data, which shows precise locations and movement of phones connecting to towers nearby, has been key to finding suspects in crimes, including the man charged in the probe of the Washington, DC, pipe bombs placed near the RNC and DNC headquarters in 2021.

The FBI director’s social media post angered local and state officials in Rhode Island who viewed it as premature and damaging to the probe.

A person familiar with the FBI director’s social media post said that Patel was referring to the use of the CAST data to pinpoint the person’s location at the hotel.

The FBI declined to comment.

The tweet and its backlash echoed an earlier episode in which Patel prematurely announced an arrest in the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Prior to becoming FBI director, Patel cultivated a large MAGA following with frequent podcast appearances and social media posts attacking the FBI with “deep state” conspiracies. Now, he continues to be quick to post on social media, even amid ongoing investigations.

Asked at a Senate hearing about his erroneous social media post in the Kirk investigation, Patel acknowledged he could have used better terminology but defended his post: “I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something — working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody.”

Rhode Island local and state officials overseeing the Brown shooting say they’ve had a good working relationship with the Boston-based FBI officials working with them in Rhode Island. They aren’t as pleased with top FBI leadership.

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Neronha expressed his frustration that information about the person of interest had become public.

“I think because people who aren’t familiar and aren’t experienced in investigations got over their skis,” Neronha said Monday night.

In this case, there were others also on the radar as possible persons of interest.

Still, local prosecutors worked to draft a search warrant of the hotel room. The person of interest had turned off their phone during a period, which some investigators believed to be suspicious, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

He was released later that night after investigators uncovered other information that seemed to point in other directions, law enforcement officials said.

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