Brown University police chief placed on leave, feds investigate

Monday, December 22, Brown University President Christine Paxson has placed his campus police chief on leaveaccording to the Associated Press. Rodney Chatman will be away while the University of Rhode Island reviews its security policies. Update comes after shooter killed two students and injured nine others earlier this month.

RELATED: Suspected Brown University shooter, MIT professor found dead in New Hampshire (VIDEOS)

Who will replace Brown University’s police chief?

Questions surrounding Brown University’s security policies have only intensified since the Dec. 13 shooting. The incident not only shook the Providence community, but also led to a lengthy search for the killer.

Much of the attention has focused on whether the Ivy League school had installed security cameras in the building where the attack took place and the general ease of access to campus buildings.

President Paxson announced that Hugh T. Clementsthe former police chief of the Providence Police Department, will replace Rodney Chatman. In October, Rodney Chatman had already faced a vote of censure from the union representing school police officers. Local media reported at the time that the union said the vote reflected “serious concerns about failed leadership, contract violations and policies that jeopardize public safety. »

More agencies investigate shooting

Backlash over school security led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. The agency said earlier Monday that officials were requesting information from Brown University to help determine whether school officials violated federal campus safety and security requirements. This included researching security reports, audits, dispatch and call logs, as well as using emergency notifications.

What happened to the shooter?

On December 13, an armed man Claudio Neves Valente entered a study session in an academic building at Brown University and opened fire on students. The 48-year-old killed a sophomore named Ella Cook and an 18-year-old freshman named Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. Additionally, he injured nine others. The shooter was a Brown graduate student studying physics during the 2000-01 school year.

Two days later, authorities say Neves Valente also shot and killed a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nuno FG Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home. Neves Valente had attended Loureiro’s school in Portugal in the 1990s. Valente, the shooter, was found dead days later in a New Hampshire warehouse. Authorities say he committed suicide. An autopsy determined that Neves Valente died on December 16, the same day Loureiro died in the hospital.

Brown University family mourns during the holidays

Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered Monday at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, to commemorate the life of Ella Cook.

His family invited attendees to wear “Easter colors,” a nod to Cook’s Christian faith. The Episcopal funeral service also incorporated elements of the Christmas season, according to AP. The Rev. Paul FM Zahl read several letters written by members of the Brown University community to Cook’s parents, Anna Bishop Cook and Richard Cook.

“Ella was intelligent, confident, curious, kind, principled, courageous. She made a big impact on campus in just three semesters,” wrote David Skarbek, professor of political economy at Brown. “I used to tell Ella, ‘We need a pipeline from Alabama to Brown.’ In fact, his nickname on campus was Ellabama.

Rev. Zahl told the congregation that the funeral was “a kind of bigger stage, a more amplified kind of microphone” for Ella Cook to spread her Christian faith.

“I pray now that all who loved Ella so much in this life receive a vivid and individual feeling of Ella’s love, ever present with us,” Zahl said. “Because Ella’s love is eternal and entirely selfless.”

Ella Cook was an accomplished pianist who studied French, mathematics and economics at Brown. On campus, she also served as vice president of the College Republican. His political activity sparked a wave of response from national and Alabama Republicans. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered flags flown at half-staff across the state in Cook’s memory.

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Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi and Jeff Amy contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.