The investigation into the shooting of Brown faces obstacles as the students go: A former FBI agent

The investigation into the shooting at Brown University is facing challenges after students were allowed to go home for winter break, former law enforcement officials said.

The shooting incident at Brown University happened around 4:00 Saturday in the Barus and Holley engineering building. A person of interest was arrested Sunday morning, but later released.

Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were both killed in Saturday’s incident. Cook, 19, served as vice president of the Brown University College Republicans.

After the incident, Brown University canceled all exams, classes and any other activities that were scheduled. Students were told they could go home and rest for the winter.

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“This decision was made out of our deep concern for all students, faculty and staff on our campus. In the wake of these devastating events, we realize that learning and exploration will be severely restricted in the short term and that many students and others will wish to leave campus,” Brown University Provost Francis J. Doyle III wrote in a message to the campus community. “Students are free to leave if they can.”

Former FBI investigator Bill Daly told Fox News Digital that Brown University’s decision to send students home could delay the investigation.

“I think that one of the soft things in this investigation is that the students and some of the teaching staff or teaching assistants who were in the building or the room where the shots were fired have now gone back to their homes, maybe they left the campus and are not available when there is an interview,” said Daly. “It is very desirable in the event of a crime to quickly separate those people who may be witnesses so that there is no contamination against what people have heard or seen.”

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“That opportunity has passed a little bit,” he said. “Right now, the best thing that can happen is for these students and maybe some of the teachers, assistant teachers, etc., who are there, to have these conversations with the police, to write down what they believe they heard or saw.”

Daly said it is very important for investigators to contact the students who were at the scene.

“I still think it’s very important in this investigation that any of those people, any of the other students, any of the faculty, any of the teaching assistants were there,” he said. “So the fact that they are now going to all kinds of countries, this creates a big challenge.”

The University of Idaho canceled classes for a short time after four students were killed in November 2022, although some students returned home before fall break after the shooting.

Michael Balboni, a former New York State homeland security adviser, told Fox News Digital that eyewitness accounts of the crime are becoming harder to come by as students are told to leave.

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“It’s very difficult to try to get eyewitness accounts, everything from how someone entered the room where the shots were fired,” said Balboni.

However, Balboni said Brown’s administration was forced to make the “very difficult decision” to cancel exams and let students go home.