On December 13, 2025, a masked shooter entered the college campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. This event began at 4 p.m. local time at the Barus and Holley engineering building, where final exams were taking place. Rachel Friedberg, a professor at the university, told BBC that the shooter burst into the room and “yelled something” before opening fire. It was the second day of their final exam week for the fall semester. In this, nine people were injured, and two were killed.
The first victim of this devastating event was Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore at Brown from Alabama. Ella was studying French, mathematics, and economics. She was also an active member of the Brown community as vice president of the Brown College Republicans. She was said to be kind and intellectual while being known for her faith. “Ella was known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates,” Martin Bertao, president of College Republicans of America, said in a social media post. The second victim was Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old in his first semester at Brown. He was a U.S. dual citizen from Uzbekistan. Makhammad was studying to be a neurosurgeon and was described by his family as “the most kind-hearted person.” Vanessa Finder, a friend and classmate, said she remembers him as “insanely smart” with a great sense of humor.
“He was a very caring and loyal friend. He was a compassionate person,” Finder said. She told BBC that Mukhammad wasn’t actually enrolled in the economics class that was targeted, but he had decided to accompany a friend.
The suspect was Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old who was a former Brown University student. Valente was found dead on December 18, 2025, two days after taking his own life, according to the medical examiner. Valente was described as “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.” Prosecutors believe he had an untraceable phone and avoided credit cards in his own name. It was also found by prosecutors that Valente was responsible for killing an MIT professor days after the Brown shooting; he had known the professor due to attending the same academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.
Since this horrific circumstance, the Department of Education has come out with a statement reporting their investigation for potential Clery Act Violations. This act “requires institutions of higher education to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid.” In the end, it was discovered that Brown’s campus and surveillance systems may not have met the appropriate standards, which allowed the suspect to flee, and the university couldn’t provide helpful information on the suspect’s description. In addition, many Brown students and staff reported that the university’s emergency notifications were delayed. If this is the case, then Brown has many serious breaches of their responsibilities under the federal law. To ensure the safety of the students and staff, the FSA has requested a series of information to be submitted by January 30, 2026.
In 2025, there were over 391 school shootings. 148 children from kindergarten through twelfth grade were victims of a school shooting, and 13,929 people died from gun-related violence. These might seem like only numbers, but behind every number is a family who is grieving their child, their sibling, or their grandchild. Gun violence not only shatters families but also terrifies the community as we teach another generation how to live through gun violence. The Brown shooting demands action from schools and lawmakers to foster a safer future.
