Shots rang out at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sat. Dec. 13, 2025. A gunman entered the school and fired shots at 16:00 local time in the Barus and Holley engineering building on the eastern end of the Brown University campus.
Brown University is located about 50 miles from Boston, Massachusetts. The school is 180 miles from New York City and has a student population of 11,000. It is classified as an Ivy League college and the oldest higher education institution among the elite universities in the U.S.
Students were in the midst of their finals week and reviewing exams when an armed man entered the building. After he started to yell incoherently, students and staff scrambled for any inch of safety. Students and staff were trying to get down or find ways to escape, but many were shot on their way. Students lay themselves against any structure they could, avoiding windows and anything that would make them visible.
Two victims who were killed in the attack have been identified as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook. Ella Cook was the Vice President of the Brown Republicans; her peers described her to BBC News as having “her bold, brave, and kind heart.” Umurzokov’s family hasn’t released a statement at this time. Nine other students remain injured, but are expected to recover. Family and friends mourn the tragic death of classmates and wait patiently as the manhunt continues.
Mia Tretta, 21, is a student at Brown and was in her dorm room studying with her friend when shots were fired. This was her second encounter with a school shooting, but in the first, she was shot.She told ABC “Everyone always tells themselves it’ll never be me,” Tretta said, “Gun violence doesn’t care if you’ve already been shot before, and it doesn’t care what community you’re in.”
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee told BBC, “Like so many of us who have been impacted by the tragedy at Brown University this weekend, I am anxious to have the shooter identified, apprehended, and brought to justice.” He directed the Rhode Island Police Department to have all the necessary resources to investigate, patrol, and support the city and the campus after installing an official reward.
The FBI has issued a $50,000 reward for any information on the whereabouts or possible suspects of the gruesome attack. Law enforcement encourages the public to speak out if they see or hear anything suspicious about persons of interest at the time. During the current process, 2,000 students have been relocated to safer areas until further notice.
President Donald Trump released a statement to the public, he said, “All we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt.” He acknowledged the shooting as “ a terrible thing” and has yet to address what the administration is willing to do about the rising gun violence. As of right now, all classes and exams will not continue as scheduled, while families process the tragic events and mourn the lost ones.
UPDATE:
The manhunt has ended, the body of the suspect was found dead two days after the shooting occurred. Claudio Neves Valente was a former Brown University student and Portuguese national, at 48 years he was found in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. Medical examiners confirmed the death was suicide by self-inflicted wounds.
“Ballistic evidence now shows shooting suspect Valente is responsible for both the shooting at Brown University and the death of the MIT professor,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told CNN News. The shell casings that were found at each of the crime scenes were not fired from the same gun, but both guns were found with Valente in New Hampshire,” Neronha said to CNN. Investigators discovered that the attacks had been planned months in advance, with a ‘deadly grudge’ and the murder of an MIT professor.
