CNN's Juliette Kayyem offered a harsh analysis of the investigation so far into the fatal shooting at Brown University, and she highlighted a significant break between local law enforcement and the FBI.
FBI Director Kash Patel trumped the detention of a person of interest in the case Sunday morning, only to see him let go by police after finding no evidence to continue holding him. Kayyem told "CNN News Central" the case was already a mess.
"I think it's kind tocall it a manhunt right now," Kayyem said, "inthe sense that manhunt generallymeans you know who you'relooking for, if at least fromwhat we know publicly, theyreally only have the back shotthat we don't even know theidentity, race or visuals of theface of the person they'relooking for. So, as [anchor] John [Berman] wassaying, you sort of have to do aregroup."
"That regroup ishappening in two ways," she continued. "One istake a step back and figure outwhether where they're looking isthe right place to look. He hadto have slept somewhere, he hadto get gas if he went on I-95.The second is the regroup ofwhat we call the sort ofincident command, and you sawthat last night."
"I had neverseen a local jurisdictionessentially throw the FBI underthe bus, not just saying we'rein charge, but saying, look,that lead that led us to theperson of interest who ended upnot being the person of interestessentially was run by the FBI," Kayyem added. "They said so explicitly."
Local authorities have insisted there's no risk to the public despite the shooter remaining at large, but students have reported they don't feel safe on campus.
"I mean, this is thechallenge and, unfortunately,the challenge of having so manymass shootings is you can'tclose down a communityindefinitely until you say,well, we found the guy," Kayyem said, "andI actually believe the mayormade the right call. You have tosort of get people starting tothink about maybe, you know,living. It's not normal,certainly, yet, but sort ofgetting back to openness."
"Thelockdown in those immediatehours was totally appropriate, but, you know, we experiencedthis in Boston during themarathon. European cities haveexperienced this afterterrorism," she added. "If you say everyonelocked down until we find him,that's just not the rightstandard. But and so I knowpeople are saying, well, if theydon't have them, why are we outand about? It's just it's justunfortunately the nature ofliving with a certain amount ofviolence and risk in thiscountry at all times."