Brown University has canceled men’s and women’s basketball games that were originally set to be held on Dec. 21, the school announced on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
The move comes three days after a mass shooting at the school’s Providence, Rhode Island campus that killed two students, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, and injured nine others.
Law enforcement officials have yet to publicly identify a suspect in the shooting. A man who was detained over the weekend was released due to a lack of evidence. Police released photos Monday night of a ‘person of interest’ wearing a black mask and asked for the public’s help in trying to identify them.
The Bears’ men’s basketball team was scheduled to travel to USC while the women’s team was set to host Monmouth at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center.
The school did not note whether the games would be rescheduled, but said that ‘further event updates will be communicated as information becomes available.’
USC, which said it and Brown had a ‘mutual agreement’ to cancel the game, noted in a release that it will play against a different opponent on Dec. 21, adding that ‘more information will be released soon.’
Brown’s men’s and women’s basketball teams aren’t scheduled to play again for nearly two weeks, which is common for many college basketball programs around Christmas. The Bears’ women’s team is set to return first, with a Dec. 29 home game against Wheaton, a Division III school in Norton, Massachusetts, while the men’s squad is scheduled to host Johnson & Wales, a Division III school in Providence, on Dec. 31.
On Sunday, university provost Francis J. Doyle III announced the school was canceling all remaining in-person exams for the fall semester.
‘As we continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff in the wake of yesterday’s tragic events, we must balance the importance of providing clear guidance on educational assessment with our responsibility to ensure the thriving of every member of our community,’ Doyle wrote in a letter addressed to students, faculty and staff.