Providence city leaders are facing mounting backlash after Mayor Brett Smiley and Police Chief Oscar Perez were publicly celebrated for their response to the Brown University shooting, despite extensive reporting showing that the suspect escaped, killed again, and was never stopped by authorities.
The controversy ignited after Providence College honored the mayor and police chief during its “First Responders Night,” where both men received a standing ovation and posed for photographs, basking in praise for what critics say was a deeply flawed response.
According to the official timeline published by ABC News, the shooter was on and around Brown’s campus for hours, fled the scene undetected, and was not identified before committing a second murder days later.
“The last video in the FBI’s timeline shows the individual walking north on Hope Street at 4:07 p.m.”
That failure stands in stark contrast to the accolades now being handed out.
Legal Insurrection documented the inept response in noting that police initially detained and then released the wrong individual, while assuring the public that the investigation was progressing.
“Authorities released the person of interest after lab tests came back negative, even as the real shooter remained at large.”
As confusion mounted, officials went silent, a vacuum that Legal Insurrection warned would only make matters worse.
“The lack of information allows a lot of speculation to flourish,” as authorities refused to answer basic questions about the suspect, motive, or security failures.
Perhaps the most damning issue raised by Legal Insurrection was the absence of usable surveillance footage from the scene of the shooting.
“After five days, officials have no idea who the shooter is, where he is, or what he looks like,” despite hundreds of cameras across campus.
That reporting was compounded by revelations that long-standing security concerns had been ignored.
“Students, staff, and even security officers warned for years about lax access controls and missing safeguards — warnings that went unheeded.”
Only after the suspect was discovered dead in a New Hampshire storage unit, having already murdered an MIT professor, did authorities finally close the case.
“Officials confirmed the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending the manhunt only after irreversible harm was done.”
The anger online has been blunt: officials who failed to stop the killer, failed to inform the public, and failed to prevent a second murder are now being honored as if they had done the opposite.
No suspect was stopped.
No second victim was saved.
No accountability has followed.
But the mayor and police chief are still taking bows.
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