On Monday, Brown University’s president announced that campus police chief Rodney Chatman would be placed on leave as the school reviews its security policies after a deadly shooting on December 13 that killed two students and injured nine.
University Response
President Christina Paxson said Chatman would be replaced by Hugh T. Clements, former chief of the Providence Police Department. Chatman had faced a vote of no confidence by the union representing school police officers in October, with the union citing serious concerns over failed leadership, contract violations, and policies that jeopardize public safety.
The university is also under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, which has requested security reports, audits, dispatch and call logs, and records of emergency notifications to determine whether federal campus safety and security requirements were violated.
Shooting Details
The attack occurred in a study session in a Brown academic building on December 13. Gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered the room and opened fire, killing Ella Cook, a sophomore, and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, and wounding nine others.
Two days later, authorities said Valente, who had been a graduate student at Brown studying physics during the 2000-01 school year, also fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home. Valente was found dead days later in a New Hampshire storage facility, where authorities say he killed himself. An autopsy determined he died on December 16, the same day Loureiro died in a hospital.
Funeral and Community Reaction
Hundreds gathered at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday to remember Cook. The service, held in an Episcopal funeral setting, invited attendees to wear Easter colors, underscoring Cook’s Christian faith, and also nodded to the Christmas season.
The Rev. Paul F.M. Zahl, who formerly led the church, read from several letters written by members of the Brown community to Cook’s parents, Anna Bishop Cook and Richard Cook, who raised Ella and her two younger siblings in the affluent Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook. Zahl said the funeral was “a kind of bigger stage, a kind of more amplified mic” for Cook to spread her Christian faith.
During the service, Zahl recounted a dream in which he was skiing behind Cook and her family. He said, “Ella turned around and shouted confidently, self-assuredly, ‘Come on, will you?'” He added, “I pray now that everyone who has loved Ella so much in this life would be given a vivid, individual feeling of Ella’s love, still present with us.” He concluded that “Ella’s love is eternal and entirely altruistic.”
Ella Cook was an accomplished pianist studying French, math and economics, and served as vice president of the college Republicans. Her political activity prompted reactions from national and Alabama Republicans. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff statewide in her memory.
Amy reported from Atlanta, Georgia.
Key Takeaways
- Brown University places campus police chief on leave amid federal investigation into campus security after a December 13 shooting.
- The gunman, Claudio Neves Valente, killed two Brown students, wounded nine, and later killed MIT professor Nuno Loureiro before taking his own life.
- Ella Cook’s funeral in Birmingham drew community members, highlighted her faith, and sparked statewide mourning.
The shooting and its aftermath have intensified scrutiny of Brown’s security measures and the university’s response, while the community continues to mourn the loss of Ella Cook and other victims.
