In a move aimed at balancing transparency with sensitivity, city officials unveiled new video footage related to the tragic shooting at Brown University. The incident, which claimed the lives of two students and left nine others wounded, occurred in December, shaking the community to its core. Released on Monday, the footage has been carefully edited to omit the most disturbing scenes, a decision made to protect victims and uphold the trust within the community.
“The commitment to transparency, accountability, and adherence to the state’s Access to Public Records Act is of utmost importance,” stated Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. He acknowledged the potential emotional impact of the released materials, noting that they could be “harmful and traumatizing” to those still grappling with the aftermath of the incident.
The demand for this footage came swiftly from media outlets both domestically and internationally, underscoring the widespread interest in the case. These requests emerged almost immediately after the shooting, reflecting the urgency for comprehensive information.
Among the released materials is an audio recording from a campus police officer, captured at 4:07 p.m. on the day of the incident. “This is Brown police. We have confirmed gunshots at 184 Hope Street,” the officer reported. “We do have a victim but we do not know where they are.”
Merely four minutes later, an update followed: “We have a suspect description, wearing all black and a ski mask, unknown travel direction,” the officer informed the city police.
The city also provided about 20 minutes of body camera footage, documenting the officer who led the initial response. These clips, although heavily redacted, depict the chaotic scene officers faced, capturing their uncertainty about the shooter’s presence and their efforts to secure a haven for evacuated students. Discarded backpacks, gloves, and other belongings underscore the pandemonium as officers searched the premises for the shooter and victims.
“Let’s get these rescues in, where are we staging rescue?” the officer, who was not identified, says in the video.
He later cautions other officers, “Shooter might still be in the building, so use caution alright.”
Long portions of the video are either blacked out or with the audio redacted. The video is often blocked by the officer’s arms in front of the camera. The city did not release any other body camera footage.
Other audio captures officers describing a possible sighting of the shooter on the second floor of another building and a report of a suspect being taken into custody. It’s unclear when officers realized they had the wrong person in custody, but within minutes, one officer instructs them “We’re gonna work on the premise that that’s not him. We’re gonna conduct a secondary search.”
The city released those records Monday, saying they waited at the request of the victims families until after a memorial service was held the previous week on Brown’s campus.
On Dec. 13, gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a study session in a Brown academic building and opened fire on students, killing 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others.
A newly released police incident report reiterated the emotional moments law enforcement had previously shared about hospitalized victims responding to photos of the suspected shooter.
One victim “quickly froze, physically pushed back” and began crying and shaking as she confirmed the image matched the person who shot her. Another victim “took a deep breath, shut his eyes, changed his breathing pattern and confirmed that the shooter he saw in the hallway appeared to be the person in the photos presented.”
Authorities say Neves Valente, who had been a graduate student at Brown studying physics during the 2000-01 school year, also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home.
Neves Valente, who had attended school with Loureiro in Portugal in the 1990s, was found dead days after the shooting in a New Hampshire storage facility.
The Justice Department has since said Neves Valente planned the attack for years and left behind videos in which he confessed to the killings but gave no motive. The FBI recovered the electronic device containing the series of videos during a search of the storage facility where Neves Valente’s body was found.
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