A masked shooter left at least two students dead and at least nine injured at Brown University campus after opening fire inside a classroom as students prepared for a final exam. 

The Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island was plunged into lockdown chaos on Saturday night as police launched an urgent manhunt for the suspected gunman after the shooting. 

Officials said at least two people lost their lives in the shooting. In a second press conference, officials said the injury toll rose to nine as a victim sustained non-life threatening injuries after being hit by ‘fragments’ of an item that was shot. 

Authorities shared surveillance footage of the suspect following the shooting, showing a stocky man wearing a black bomber jacket, black gloves, a beanie and boots walking briskly past a grassy area.

At the press conference, officials said the suspect is believed to possibly be in his 30s and may have been wearing a dark camouflage mask during the shooting. 

The terrifying incident unfolded near the Barus and Holley Engineering building, according to an alert sent out by the university at 4:22pm local time. 

In an update from the university at 5:11pm, officials said that a suspect was not in custody and police are continuing to search for the shooter. Officials previously reported that a suspect was in custody earlier in the evening. 

Police said at the press conference that the suspect opened fire inside the engineering building, and had fled the scene by the time officers arrived and swept the scene.

Conflicting reports from the chaotic scene also claimed a secondary shooting occurred blocks away from the campus around an hour after the initial shooting. Brown University said in an update that those reports were ‘unfounded.’ 

A heavy law enforcement response descended on the campus, and the Trump administration said FBI and ATF agents were on the scene.  

The shooting unfolded as students were taking their final exams, and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said that the gunman ‘walked right in’ to the building because doors were left unlocked for students taking examinations. 

The Daily Mail approached Brown University and Providence Police for comment. 

Students have been urged to remain sheltered in place amid conflicting reports that the suspect was in custody, which were later walked back by officials. 

Hours after the shooting took place, terrified students remained in lockdown as images surfaced on social media showing barricaded doors while the gunman remained on the loose. 

Investigators have not yet recovered any weapons used in the shooting, officials said at the press conference. A source told the Associated Press investigators believe a handgun was used by the gunman 

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social he had been briefed on the shooting and the FBI were on the scene. 

The president initially said a suspect was in custody, but walked back his statement and said in a follow up post: ‘The Brown University Police reversed their previous statement — The suspect is NOT in custody.’ 

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the confusion over reports of a second shooting were sparked by a ‘confrontation’ with an individual blocks away from the campus, which resulted in gunfire. 

The police source said that the connection between the incident and the suspected shooter is uncertain, but the incident was the reason for conflicting reports that a suspect was in custody.  

Soon after the shooting, horrific witness accounts surfaced from students and faculty swept up in the chaotic scenes. 

Brown University student Wayne McNamara said he saw two people bleeding outside his dorm room, around a block from where the shooting was reported. 

‘People started running and I sprinted downstairs and back outside, took my clothes off and tried my best to stop the bleeding on the two kids by wrapping my clothes around their wounds,’ he told the Boston Globe. 

McNamara said one of the people shot was ‘bleeding severely,’ while the other was ‘panting and [was] shot around his shoulder.’  

Another witness told WJAR they saw first responders performing CPR on at least three victims near the engineering building. 

‘I started seeing a bunch of cars going towards the scene and I saw someone on the ground, unfortunately. It looked like they were getting CPR,’ said Providence resident Jib Daya. 

‘I saw about two people getting carried away on the stretcher.’ 

Daya said the Brown campus area is known as a quiet, safe community, and hoped such a tragedy would ‘never come’ to those affected. 

‘Now it’s over here… it’s very scary because I don’t want to get harmed and I don’t want my people in my state to get harmed,’ he said. 

A mother of a Brown student said her son texted her a final goodbye before hiding in a closet.

She told Fox’s LiveNOW that her son and his classmates were studying for finals in the library when she got the following text: ‘mom, there’s a live shooting on campus, I’m going to run, I love you.’

She said they’ve only been texting and she’s getting live updates from him.

‘We told him not to make a single sound. He’s in a supply closet room, barricaded with 12 students,’ she said. 

‘They turned off the lights, they put chairs on their door. One of his classmates is having a panic attack so the friends are trying to keep her quiet so no sounds are being made.’

The shooting marks more than 70 school shootings this year, per the Gun Violence Archive. 

This is a developing story and will be updated as information is confirmed.