Brown University implements campus-wide security overhaul after mass shooting leaves 2 dead, 9 wounded

Following the Dec. 13 mass shooting at Brown University, school officials Tuesday announced new safety measures, including installing security cameras inside the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building where 11 students were shot, including two fatally.

In a letter to the community, Brown University Department of Public Safety interim vice president Hugh T. Clements Jr. said immediate actions will include increased public safety staffing across campus, and continued use of card access, keys or ID checks for building entry.

He added that before the Spring 2026 semester, university police will transition remaining buildings using key access to card access, expand blue-light phones with cameras, install security cameras in key locations, including the Barus and Holley building, and expand panic buttons in critical areas.

New trauma-informed safety and active-shooter preparedness training will also be offered in the spring semester.

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Clements, who previously served as chief of the Providence Police Department, was recently named Brown’s interim public safety vice president after former chief Rodney Chatman was placed on leave following a report from The Boston Globe, which alleged a school custodian, Derek Lisi, saw the shooter at Barus and Holley weeks before the incident and alerted a security guard.

Authorities say 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a former Brown student, opened fire inside the elite university’s engineering and physics building, killing students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, before traveling to Boston to kill MIT professor Nuno Loureiro. Days later, authorities found Neves-Valente dead by suicide in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. 

The Department of Education opened an investigation into Brown University for potential violations of the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act (Clery Act), which requires colleges to meet campus safety and security requirements to receive federal student aid. 

The department will also conduct an external after-action review of the incident and emergency response, and a comprehensive, externally-led campus safety and security assessment incorporating community input, according to Clements.

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“The Brown community has experienced an unspeakable tragedy,” Clements wrote in the letter. “I want to say clearly and unequivocally: What happened on Dec. 13 should never happen again—at Brown or anywhere—and we must confront that imperative for our community with steadfast purpose.”

“As I step into this role, I do so fully aware that there are critical questions about the strength of our safety and security systems,” he added. “Acknowledging those questions is not about assigning blame—it is about responsibility, learning and improvement. … Safety requires more than visible security. It is built through preparation, transparency, trust and partnership.”

The department said it will work on improving coordination with local agencies, enhancing emergency communications and training, and reinforcing awareness of safety and emergency resources.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.