GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The fallout from two weekend mass shootings continued today, one in Rhode Island, the other half-a-world away in Australia.

AMNA NAWAZ: We begin in Providence, Rhode Island, where officials today released new video of a person of interest as the hunt continues for the gunman behind a shooting in a lecture hall at Brown University.

Two students were killed and nine others were injured.

A short time ago, officials said they're still searching for the suspect and for more leads.

TED DOCKS, FBI Special Agent in Charge: We are renewing our call for the public's assistance in seeking any and all information about the shooter.

No amount of information is too small or irrelevant.

We are also here to announce the FBI is now offering a reward of $50,000 for information that can lead to the identification, the arrest and the conviction of the individual responsible, who we believe to be armed and dangerous.

AMNA NAWAZ: Earlier in the day, most students left campus after classes and exams were canceled, but an increased police presence remained in the area and the community is coping with the aftermath.

(SINGING) AMNA NAWAZ: Huddled together in the frigid night air, the Brown University community gathered in grief last night.

What was once planned as a Christmas tree and menorah lighting celebration was now a moment to mourn.

ANAND ADVANI, Brown University Student: We're all very sad and coming out of a period of being very scared.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ph.D.

Student Jaren Friesen recalled the shooting.

JAREN FRIESEN, Brown University Student: I had heard some loud sound.

I am so conditioned to thinking that something like that could happen.

So my first instinct was that it was a gun.

AMNA NAWAZ: An all-too-common event for American students, this time claiming the lives of two, identified by authorities as Muhammad Aziz Umurzakov and Ella Cook; 18-year-old Umurzakov, a freshman from Midlothian, Virginia, was described by the American Uzbekistan Association as sharp, kind-hearted and gifted and, according to his family, dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon.

Ella Cook was just 19 years old, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, an accomplished pianist and leader in the College Republican club.

She was described by her hometown priest as generous, faithful and a bright light.

Umurzakov and Cook were killed Saturday when a gunman opened fire on students in the middle of final exams.

Overnight, authorities released a person of interest without providing details or answering questions about where the shooter might be.

BRETT SMILEY (D), Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island: It takes time to run this evidence.

It takes time to process information that was collected and hard evidence that was collected.

AMNA NAWAZ: Rhode Island's attorney general defended the decision, saying the investigation is high-stakes.

PETER NERONHA, Rhode Island Attorney General: This is what these investigations look like.

And sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another.

AMNA NAWAZ: For Brown junior Mia Tretta, this marked the second school shooting she survived.

MIA TRETTA, Brown University Student: It felt like, of course it won't happen again.

It already did.

Gun violence doesn't -- it doesn't care whether you have been shot before.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tretta was 15 when she was shot during a mass shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, in 2019.

Her best friend, Dominic Blackwell, was killed along with two other students.

MIA TRETTA: I had to continue going to not let this shooting, this gun, take my whole life away, but also for my best friend.

I had to go to college because my best friend will never get the opportunity to.

I had to continue my life for someone else who couldn't.

AMNA NAWAZ: A new memorial now grows, this time at the gates of Brown University, as the hunt for the person responsible continues.

Joining us now for more is Maya Nelson.

She's an editor at the student newspaper.

That's The Brown Daily Herald.

And she joins us from New York.

Maya, we are so glad that you are well and that you made the time to speak with us.

Thank you for joining the show.

MAYA NELSON, The Brown Daily Herald: Thank you so much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you are at home in New York now.

Just take us back, if you can, and tell us about where you were when the shooting happened, what you remember about that time, and how you learned what was going on.

MAYA NELSON: Yes, absolutely.

So, I was definitely one of the really, really lucky ones.

I was actually at my professor's house at the time.

He was hosting the final meeting for our class there, since it's a pretty small seminar, and we were all invited to stay over for dinner afterwards.

So we were all there when we got the news in the middle of a class discussion, when the alert started going off on everyone's phone.

And basically class was canceled from there and we all just started checking in on all of our friends, other students, everyone we knew on campus to make sure that they were OK, and as the night went on and it became clear that the lockdown wasn't going to be lifted any time soon.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me about what you're hearing from other students as well right now, two days later, how you're feeling, especially now that the gunman is still at large.

MAYA NELSON: Yes, I think the initial shock of everything has kind of passed at this point, and now everyone is in mourning and grieving.

The identities of the two students have been pretty much confirmed at this point, and I know a lot of people who knew them, who are friends of them, who just are starting to process their grief on that.

I know a lot of people, all of my friends have come home at this point and are just so grateful to be with family and to be safe afterwards, me among them.

I'm so glad to be back at home now and to be really thoroughly supported through this.

I think there's definitely still a lot of fear in the air, not knowing who did this.

I think a lot of students, if it's not revealed who it was -- or it's going to be a difficult feeling on campus now.

I think that's always -- it's always going to hang in the air over us going forward.

And, yes, it's been a really tough few days.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maya, are you worried about going back to campus?

MAYA NELSON: A little, yes.

I really thought that they had found the guy when that news was released.

And that was a huge relief, since when -- as the manhunt was going on, people, I think, were getting less and less confident that they would be able to find a suspect.

So it was a huge relief when they did.

And then now all that progress has kind of been, I don't want to say undone, but it feels kind of a little bit like we're back where we were two days ago.

And I just remember going back to my dorm right after to pick up my stuff before being driven back.

And it just -- it felt so wrong.

I was like kind of shaking on the walk back because the gunman was still at large and I didn't know if they were a student.

I didn't know if they could be there still.

And I think if whoever's responsible isn't caught, I think a lot of students going back are still going to feel that fear and that lack of resolution.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maya, unfortunately, your peers, your generation, shootings like this are somewhat the norm, right?

There's two students already who've come forward who survived this shooting who'd already survived high school shootings as well.

Did you ever think something like this would happen at Brown?

MAYA NELSON: Not at Brown.

I remember, in high school, it was talked about a little bit more frequently.

We had a few bomb threats at my school.

It was always kind of looming.

There were a lot of shooter drills and things that we did to prepare.

And so it was more kind of actively in everyone's minds.

And for some reason, I thought in my head when you came to college, like, you were safe now, especially at a school like Brown that is so close-knit and also just has always felt very, very safe and very much like home to me.

It was not something that was ever really going through my head, the possibility of something like this.

AMNA NAWAZ: You, of course, are also a journalist at your school.

You're covering the same story as you're living through it.

Tell us about what you have been able to report on so far and what kind of messages you're hearing from students who are trying to reckon with this over the last few days.

MAYA NELSON: It has been really, really difficult, obviously, but at the same time, so meaningful to be part of this and to be in a position to be able to take some action and feel like I'm contributing to something, because I know a lot of students who are feeling kind of, like, aimless and detached right now.

They don't know what to do.

And it's really nice to have an outlet to be able to channel my work and my focus.

And I'm just so incredibly grateful to everyone who I have spoken with who has been able to trust me with their story and has been open with me, who's helped out with sources, who's just provided support in whatever way they can.

And, yes, the entire experience has been just really, really, really valuable.

AMNA NAWAZ: Maya, we're so grateful that you could make the time to speak with us today.

We really do appreciate your time and your insights.

Maya Nelson from Brown University, joining us from her home in New York, thank you.

It was good to speak with you.

MAYA NELSON: Thank you so much.