Brown University police chief put on leave, former Providence police chief to step in
Brown University placed its chief of police on leave Monday as officials grapple with the discovery that the gunman in the deadly Dec. 13 mass shooting went on to kill an MIT professor in Massachusetts just two days later.
Rodney Chatman, the university’s vice president for public safety and emergency management and chief of its police force, was placed on administrative leave effective Monday, Brown University President Christina Paxson announced in a letter to the school community.
Former Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements will serve as interim for these positions, assuming day-to-day leadership of the university’s police department and reporting directly to Paxson, according to the letter.
Clements previously served as the director of the federal Office of Community Oriented Policing Services for the U.S. Department of Justice, Paxson wrote. He also worked as a visiting fellow at Brown for nearly five years beginning in 2018.
“I understand the gravity of the concerns about safety that follow a tragedy of the magnitude that Brown has suffered,” Paxson wrote in the letter. “I want to assure you of Brown’s deep commitment to take every possible action to increase the safety and security of our campus, with the goal of protecting our community from future harm.”
Also on Monday, U.S. Education Department officials announced the opening of an investigation into Brown’s overall security , as well as its emergency response to the mass shooting. If the university is found to have broken federal law mandating minimum safety and security standards for campuses, it could lose government-funded student aid.
How Brown plans to improve campus security
The change in leadership over security at Brown University was announced Monday along with three other initiatives meant to increase safety at the institution.
Firstly, Brown has tasked a “rapid response team” with implementing new, immediate safety and security measures, according to the letter. Its goal is to secure the campus prior to the start of the spring semester. The university also plans to increase the number and visibility of security personnel, surveillance cameras and panic alarms across campus as quickly as possible.
Secondly, Brown is now set to commission an external “After-Action Review” of the Dec. 13 mass shooting that will be overseen by Clements, according to the letter. This will include a “complete assessment and evaluation of campus safety in the period leading up to the tragedy, the preparedness and response on the date of the shooting, and the emergency management response in the aftermath.”
Thirdly, the university plans to complete a “comprehensive” assessment of its campus’ safety and security, according to the letter. This will entail a review of Brown’s existing safety policies and procedures, as well as an analysis of building perimeters, access points, surveillance cameras and other related infrastructure.
Barus and Holley, the engineering and physics building in which sophomore Ella Cook and first-year student Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were killed, will be of particular focus as Brown reviews and improves its security, Paxson wrote.
Both reviews will be governed by a committee made up of members of the Corporation of Brown University — the institution’s governing body, according to the letter. It is unclear how external reviewers will be identified and considered, but the committee will be tasked approving the selected organizations and the scope of their inquiry.
“The University is committed to sharing key outcomes of both reviews with its community and the public,” the letter reads.
The stakes keep rising for Brown
Paxson’s letter comes less than a week after police found the gunman responsible for the mass shooting — 48-year-old Portugese national Claudio Neves Valente — dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Despite capturing his image on several surveillance cameras, investigators struggled to identify the former Brown doctoral physics student as a suspect for days after the shooting.
In searching for Neves Valente, police connected him to the shooting of MIT physics professor Nuno Loureiro at his Brookline apartment complex. Loureiro, who is also from Portugal and crossed paths with Neves Valente in decades past, was killed two days after 11 students were struck by gunfire at Brown.
While investigating the mass shooting, police also discovered that a custodian at the university had warned a security guard of a suspicious man on campus weeks before the attack. The suspicious man was later discovered to be Neves Valente.
Additionally, Brown students and staff have reported that the university’s emergency notification system was delayed in alerting them to the shooter on Dec. 13, federal officials claimed in their investigation announcement on Monday.
As of Monday morning, five of the nine students who were injured by gunfire on Dec. 13 remained in stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, officials said. The four other victims had been discharged.
“As we work to heal and recover, our primary focus is to nurture a thriving campus by attending to the psychological and social health of all members of our community while we also demonstrate that Brown is still Brown — a safe, inclusive, caring community of talented students and scholars and dedicated staff," Paxson wrote.
“But this work begins with taking all steps to ensure that our campus is a safe place to work, live and learn. We are unwavering in this commitment.”
Brown University Shooting, Dec. 13, 2025
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