PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WHDH) - An independent review released Friday on the City of Providence’s response to the mass shooting at Brown University on December 13, 2025 found that it was “highly unlikely” the tragedy could have been prevented.
The review conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) found that the City of Providence’s response was “…highly effective across City government, highlighting the courage, professionalism, and adaptability of first responders and City personnel under extraordinary, difficult circumstances.”
PERF also found that “…Providence personnel acted decisively despite incomplete information and that the City’s response met or exceeded key benchmarks for active-shooter and hostile-event responses.”
In the review, PERF also identified areas to strengthen the systems amid a large-scale emergency response, including mutual aid, interoperable communications, investigative work, emergency notifications, and joint training.
“We asked for an independent review because the people of Providence deserve an honest assessment of how their city responded to an unprecedented tragedy,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. “The findings affirm that our police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, dispatchers, emergency management professionals, and other City employees responded with courage, urgency, and professionalism when our community needed them most. We also know that every discussion of this response must begin with the people whose lives were changed forever. We will never lose sight of that. Our commitment to preparedness is ultimately about protecting people and giving our first responders every possible advantage when lives are at risk.”
Two Brown University students, Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed when a gunman opened fire in a classroom on December 13, 2025. Nine others were hurt in the attack.
Two days after the shooting, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno Loureiro was shot and killed at his home in Brookline. Police later determined that Loureiro and the shooter attended school in Portugal together in the late 1990s.
The gunman’s body was eventually found at a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire after a five-day search. Authorities identified him as Claudio Valente, 48, and said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They said he briefly attended Brown University’s Doctoral Program 25 years before the shooting.
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