Person Of Interest In Cust -- Never Mind!

I linked to several stories yesterday that gave breathless details on the "person of interest" that somehow dissipated almost as soon as they were released. The POI drove 17 hours from Wisconsin to Providence -- well, no, he lived in a DC apartment. He was in custody -- well, no, he was being detained. He may have had an extensive mental health history -- well, who knows, he's been released!

The person of interest detained earlier today in connection with the deadly shooting will be released shortly, Providence's mayor said at a news conference late tonight.

. . . Mayor Brett Smiley said, "The status of safety in our community remains unchanged, and we believe that you remain safe in our community."

Police initially said they were confident the person of interest was the person who opened fire in a first-floor classroom at Brown’s Barus & Holley building yesterday before fleeing.

In fact,

Charges could be filed against a person of interest in the shooting as early as the next few hours, Providence’s police chief, Col. Oscar Perez, told NBC News following a press conference this afternoon.

Perez said the investigation remains ongoing but that police are confident that the man in custody is the suspected gunman. He added he wanted to ensure that all legal requirements are met before charges are brought.

"We're going to work with the attorney general's office to make sure that we have the right legal requirements for the charges," Perez said. "And this is, it's just complex. There's a lot of evidence, there's a lot of witnesses, and so we have to make sure that we have it all tight. And to make sure we have a good case."

Pereze said police cannot hold the person of interest beyond tomorrow if charges are not filed. He said he is hoping an arraignment will take place "sooner rather than later."

The POI was rousted out of bed at the Hampton Inn around 3:45 AM Sunday morning.

Authorities traced Erickson to a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island. According to the sources, law enforcement banged on the door, ordering him to open the door. Once inside, they asked where Erickson had been that day and evening. He responded he was there in the hotel the whole time.

Here's where things get puzzling for me, a true crime amateur. Even a mid-range hotel like Hampton Inn is going to have security features like cameras in the parking lot, hallways, and lobby and card-key room entry. This means that the law enforcement who rousted poor Erickson out of bed should have been able to confirm or disprove Erickson's alibi that he'd been there all Saturday within about 20 minutes by looking at the securiy footage and the card key activity. If he was in the hotel all day, it would be shown on the video and the card key record. Instead, it looks like they took him down to the station and held him until they had no choice but to release him. Via the first link,

Authorities will shortly release a person of interest who was detained earlier today because the evidence “now points in a different direction,” Rhode Island's attorney general said tonight.

Authorities did not originally specify what evidence they had to justify taking the person of interest into custody. Providence’s police chief, Col. Oscar Perez, had earlier told NBC News that police were confident the person was the shooter.

But Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a news conference tonight, at which Perez was also preset, that there is no justification to keep the man detained.

"I think it's fair to say that there is no basis to consider him a person of interest, so that's why he's being released," Neronha told reporters.

So now they're back to square one:

Mayor Smiley is asking area residents and business owners to reach out to police with any footage that might have captured the subject in the Waterman Street video.

“If you have a camera and you are nearby, the video that was released was the corner of Hope and Waterman Streets, and if you are in that area and you have video, you have home video, Ring camera, security camera, you’re a small business owner, please reach out to us,” said Smiley.

Apparently, and incredibly, that one clip at the corner of Hope and Waterman Streets is all Prividence police, or Brown University, have:

Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez carefully worded his answer while responding to a question from a reporter about whether there is additional video and why it hasn’t been released. “What we shared with you the other day is what we have that we could share,” he said. He then went on to say that he didn’t want to answer that there is “no more video” because detectives in the field might find more video, but then finished by saying, “What we gave you is what we have.”

In the 21st century, cameras are everywhere, except in Providence and at Brown. But I linked to a post just yesterday that said Brown had over 800 cameras on campus. Just none of the 800 pointed where they needed it. This is in sharp contrast to the video footage that was quickly available at Utah Valley College and nearby after the shooting of Charlie Kirk.

And this comes as college applicants for fall 2026 are finalizing their choices; application deadlines are next month. Clearly the issue of campus safety will be a factor if they choose to apply to Brown. If it were me, I'd apply to Penn or Cornell instead, or maybe lesser-ranked but still prestigious schools like Williams. Anyplace but Brown.

And this leaves aside the settlements that will inevitably be paid out to the shooting victims, both killed and wounded, and their families. I suspect poor Erickson may have cause for legal action himself. And that even leaves aside the potential damage to Brown's image when the real culprit is identified and he (almost certainly) doesn't turn out to be a white MAGA type from Wisconsin.

You casn see how badly they wanted to track the perp down right away, and how badly they wanted a white MAGA type. In fact, this is going to compound whatever embarrassment they would have had if the shooter had been caught right away but turned out to have been a jihadist. I think I see Brown President Christina Hull Paxson's retirement on the horizon.

FOOTNOTE: I asked Chrome AI mode, "Does Benjamin Erickson, the "person of interest" in the Brown shooting, have cause for legal action against Providence now that he's been released?" It answered,

Benjamin Erickson likely has grounds for legal action against authorities or specific news outlets for defamation or false light. Although he was detained as a "person of interest" following the December 13, 2025, shooting at Brown University, he was released after investigators determined he was not involved.

His name was leaked and widely publicized as a "suspect" or "person of interest" despite never being charged. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha called the premature release of his name "really unfortunate" and noted the difficulty of reversing such public damage.

. . . If law enforcement lacked probable cause for his initial detention at a hotel in Coventry, RI, he could pursue a claim for false arrest or wrongful detention, though "person of interest" status often provides police with broader investigative leeway.

I suspect that failure of police to review security footage at the hotel that would have been exonerating could be a major issue.