PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University is taking steps to preserve the flowers that were left at memorial sites following a mass shooting on campus back in December.
Authorities say 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, a former Brown University student and Portuguese national, shot and killed two students and injured nine others on campus back on December 13, 2025.
Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Uzbekistan, were the two students killed.
Authorities say Valente also shot and killed Brookline professor Nuno Loureiro, who he attended school within Portugal.
Valente was found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In the days and weeks following the tragedy on campus, bouquets, candles, photos, and notes were placed on memorial sites across campus.
As part of the ongoing work to care for the memorial, Brown University said in a statement, leaders are collecting and saving select flower samples with the goal of preserving some in “perpetuity.”
Many of the samples are now being stored at the Brown University Herbarium, an on-campus natural history museum for preserved plants.
The preservation of the flowers from the memorials are part of the Brown Ever True healing and recovery initiative.
The Brown Ever True healing and recovery initiative, according to the university, is a campus-wide initiative that brings together resources, programming, and services to support mental health, psychological wellness and a strong sense of community for Brown University in the aftermath of the mass shooting.
“As conversations continue about engaging the community in planning for permanent memorialization, preserving flowers from these fleeting memorials offers a way to respectfully document a difficult moment in Brown’s history,” said Brown in a statement.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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