What a nightmare. On December 13, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national, opened fire in the engineering building at Brown University, killing two and wounding another nine. He was found dead five days later in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
The building was unsecured, reportedly because it was finals. Some students dispute the claim made by university president Christina Paxson. In the aftermath, we found out that a faculty member and the school custodian noticed Valente casing the building weeks before the attack. It was “John,” a homeless man who lived in the basement, who cracked the case open, getting Valente’s description, including the model, make, and tags for his rental car.
Still, the shambolic pressers held by Rhode Island and Brown officials remain a point of contention, with Mayor Brett Smiley whining that they were tired. Of course, because liberals don’t work. But Brown seems prepared for lawsuits, soliciting the counsel of a former US attorney and suspending the university police chief as the Trump administration announced it would be investigating the lax security conditions (via CBS News):
BREAKING: Trump admin. says it will investigate security failures at Brown University after deadly mass shooting https://t.co/VJZSfYoreV pic.twitter.com/24itjDb6Nu
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 23, 2025
The DEI Police Chief at Brown University has been placed on leave after ignoring a custodian’s dozen warnings about suspicious activity linked to the mass killer. pic.twitter.com/KteKOi03jz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 23, 2025
Brown University President Christina Paxson says she has put the current vice president of public safety, Rodney Chatman, on administrative leave effectively immediately https://t.co/6nFKxVZ0sy
— Eli Sherman (@Eli_Sherman) December 23, 2025
#BREAKING: Brown University confirms their VP for Public Safety and Emergency Management, Rodney Chatman, has been put on administrative leave. Former Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements will serve as interim chief of police, according to Brown. The statement came from…
— Brooke Taylor (@Brooketaylortv) December 23, 2025
Brown University police chief Rodney Chatman has been placed on leave more than a week after the mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine others in Providence, Rhode Island.
School president Christina Paxson said Monday evening that Brown will commission a review of campus safety and the response to the Dec. 13 shooting that investigators say was carried out by former grad student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.
"A review like this is standard," Paxson said in a statement. "As it takes place, Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman is on leave, effective immediately."
Paxson said former Providence Police Department chief Hugh T. Clements will serve as interim chief for public safety and police while Chatman is on leave. Chatman was appointed to his role in 2021 and previously worked in campus safety at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Utah.
A new police chief, Hugh Clements, has been appointed in the interim. Clements formerly headed the police department in Providence.
🚨 JUST IN: Brown University has hired FORMER, pre-DEI Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements, to be the interim head of Public Safety at Brown
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 23, 2025
He’s replacing the DEI Head of Public Safety
It SHOULD NOT take 11 students being SHOT for DEI to be axed
GET RID OF IT EVERYWHERE,… pic.twitter.com/w3hmflRMRU
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