Brown University launches ‘healing and recovery effort’ after mass shooting

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University announced today that they will be launching a campus wide healing and recovery effort after last month’s shooting.

The mass shooting on campus happened in December when authorities said Claudio Neves Velente shot 11 students at the Barus and Holley building.

Two students, Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, died while the nine others were seriously injured.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Brown University President Christina Paxton said the effort, titled Brown Ever True, would bring together resources, programming and services focused on mental health, psychological wellness and ensuring a sense of physical security for the Brown community.

“There is no playbook for what we have been through as a community,” Paxson wrote.

“There is no single source of truth for how any of us should heal. No ‘one path’ to begin again, or ‘right way’ to find peace, solace and joy. But we are Brown — the enduring strength of our caring and supportive community has long been a hallmark of who we are. Ever true," she continued.

The community-effort will bring together ideas and contributions of academic and administrative units, with student organizations.

The effort, according to Paxton, will increase systems of support, building on the coordinated response from offices across campus that mobilized to provide services after the shooting on December 13.

The effort will already intersect with plans already in progress for enhancing campus safety and security.

Just last week, Brown University’s interim Vice President for Public Safety, Hugh Clements, released a new action as the spring semester is less than a month away.

Clements is a former chief of Providence police and was recently named the interim public safety vice president after Rodney Chatman, was placed on leave.

Brown’s recovery also includes planning remembrances for Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov.

“The outpouring of love and support for their families from the Brown and Providence communities has been deeply moving, and we continue to hold them in our hearts,” Paxson said.

“As we process our grief for Ella and Mukhammad, we will memorialize them, as well as the experiences of the nine injured students, in a campus-wide service being planned for late January. While all the injured students now have been released from the hospital, they and so many others continue to navigate through very real challenges of coping with tragedy.”

Paxton’s full letter can be read here.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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