Feds may pull student aid from Brown University over shooting
Brown University may be in danger of losing federal student aid over the Dec. 13 shooting that killed two students and injured nine others, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
In an email sent out Monday, the department wrote that it will conduct an investigation into whether Brown violated a portion of the Higher Education Act known as the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires colleges and universities to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements.
"After two students were horrifically murdered at Brown University when a shooter opened fire in a campus building, the Department is initiating a review of Brown to determine if it has upheld its obligation under the law to vigilantly maintain campus security," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the email. "Students deserve to feel safe at school, and every university across this nation must protect their students and be equipped with adequate resources to aid law enforcement. The Trump Administration will fight to ensure that recipients of federal funding are vigorously protecting students' safety and following security procedures as required under federal law."
The email further said that public reporting appeared to show that Brown's campus surveillance and security system may not have been up to standards. The Department wrote that this could have allowed the shooter to flee.
"Additionally, many Brown students and staff reported that the university's emergency notifications about the active shooter were delayed, raising significant concerns about their safety alert system. If true, these shortcomings constitute serious breaches of Brown's responsibilities under federal law," the department wrote in the email.
Brown University spokesman Brian E. Clark wrote that the university received the Department of Education's notice of review on Monday and that the university will respond directly to the department.
In addition to the Clery review, Brown will be undertaking three immediate actions to ensure the security of the campus and update emergency response protocols, according to Clark.
"First, Brown is implementing a range of immediate safety and security measures to ensure a secure campus, building upon existing efforts. Next, Brown is commissioning a comprehensive external After-Action Review of the Dec. 13 incident, including 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. And third, Brown will initiate an external comprehensive Campus Safety and Security Assessment of the campus to review Brown's current safety and security policies, procedures, infrastructure and training," Clark wrote.
The Department of Education has requested the following documents from Brown as a part of its review with a deadline of Jan. 30.
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Copies of the original 2024 and 2025 Annual Security Reports (ASRs), and any revised versions of these reports that were produced for the purpose of complying with the Clery Act, along with credible evidence of distribution and/or redistribution;
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An "audit trail" showing all incidents of crime (organized by offense classification) for the calendar years 2021-2024 and an "audit trail" showing all arrests made by Brown University Public Safety and Emergency Management Department (BPS) or other state or local law enforcement agencies, and all referrals for disciplinary action against students or employees for violations of state laws and local ordinances related to the illegal possession, use, and/or distribution of weapons, drugs, or liquor that were included in the statistical disclosures contained in the University's 2024 and 2025 ASRs;
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A copy of the BPS's activity/dispatch/call log for calendar years 2021-2025;
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A copy of the daily crime log for calendar years 2021-2025;
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A list of all Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications issued by the university during calendar years 2021-2025, with a brief description of the means or media used to disseminate the notices;
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A copy of all of Brown's policies and procedures, including any internal policies and procedures, related to timely warnings and emergency notifications, maintenance of a daily crime log, and emergency response notifications and evacuation, and a copy of any assessments of Brown's campus safety policies and practices conducted since 2020; and
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A complete set of BPS's standard operating procedures regarding dispatch, response to calls, reporting writing, arrests including issuance of citations, and protocols for active shooter scenarios.
The Dec. 13 attack set off hours of chaos on campus and in the surrounding Providence, Rhode Island neighborhoods, as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
Officials say the suspected shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head two days before he was found on Dec. 18 .
Ella Cook , a sophomore, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov , a first-year student, were killed in the shooting.
As of Monday morning, five of the nine injured victims remained hospitalized at Rhode Island Hospital in stable condition, officials said. The four other victims were discharged.
Officials declined to discuss a motive in the shootings last week, but noted that Neves Valente was a physics student at Brown University and that he and Loureiro had previously studied at the same university in Lisbon.
Court documents charged Neves Valente with 25 counts, including two counts of first-degree murder.
Gunfire erupted on the first floor of the university's Barus and Holley engineering and physics building around 4 p.m. on Dec. 13 during an exam review session.
A five-day manhunt ended after a Reddit user came forward with a key break in the case.
The Reddit user, only identified as "John" by authorities, provided investigators with a detailed rundown of his encounter with Neves Valente that eventually led to his discovery in New Hampshire.
The tip led investigators to search for a gray Nissan with Florida license plates that might be a rental vehicle. They soon found a gray Nissan Sentra in security video from the scene.
Investigators learned that the car was a rental from Alamo Rent-A-Car in downtown Boston and eventually found his body in the New Hampshire storage unit.
Brown University's records indicated that Neves Valente had been a doctoral student studying physics from the fall semester of 2000 to the spring semester of 2001, according to court documents.
Neves Valente became a legal permanent resident of the U.S. in 2017. His last known address was located in Miami, Florida.
During a press conference Thursday night , Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said she believed Neves Valente and MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro knew each other.
Both men were from Portugal, and Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez Jr. said previously that they'd previously studied at the same university in Lisbon.
MassLive reporter Luis Fieldman contributed to this article.
Brown University Shooting, Dec. 13, 2025
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