PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) 鈥� Brown University’s president on Monday placed its campus police chief on leave as the Rhode Island university reviews its security policies after and injured nine others earlier this month.
Questions surrounding Brown’s security policies have only intensified since the Dec. 13 shooting that and led to a lengthy search for the killer. Much of the focus has centered on whether the Ivy League school had security cameras installed in the building where the attack took place in and the overall ease of accessing campus buildings.
University President Christina Paxson said Rodney Chatman will be replaced by Hugh T. Clements, former police chief of the Providence Police Department. Chatman had previously faced a vote of no confidence by the union representing school police officers in October. Local media outlets reported at the time that the union said the vote reflected 鈥渟erious concerns over the failed leadership, contract violations, and policies that jeopardize public safety.”
The scrutiny over the school’s security has led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, which said earlier Monday that officials are asking Brown for information to help determine if school officials violated federal campus safety and security requirements. This has included seeking security reports, audits, dispatch and call logs, and when emergency notifications have been utilized.
Meanwhile, hundreds gathered at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday to remember Ella Cook, a Brown sophomore who was killed in the attack.
On Dec. 13, gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a study session in a Brown academic building and opened fire on students, killing Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others.
Two days later, authorities say Neves Valente, who had been a studying physics during the 2000-01 school year, also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at Loureiro鈥檚 Boston-area home.
Neves Valente, who had attended school with Loureiro in Portugal in the 1990s, was in a New Hampshire storage facility. Authorities say he killed himself. that Neves Valente died Dec. 16, the same day Loureiro died in a hospital.
In Alabama, Cook鈥檚 family on Monday invited attendees to wear 鈥淓aster colors,鈥� underscoring Cook鈥檚 Christian faith, at an Episcopal funeral service that also nodded to the Christmas season.
The Rev. Paul F.M. Zahl, who formerly led the church, read from several letters written by members of the Brown community to Cook鈥檚 parents, Anna Bishop Cook and Richard Cook, who raised Ella and her two younger siblings in the affluent Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook.
鈥淓lla was smart, confident, curious, kind, principled, brave. She had a big impact on campus in only three semesters,鈥� wrote Brown professor of political economy David Skarbek. 鈥淚 used to tell Ella, 鈥榃e need an Alabama to Brown pipeline.鈥� In fact, her nickname on campus was Ellabama.鈥�
Zahl told the congregation that the funeral was 鈥渁 kind of bigger stage, a kind of more amplified mic鈥� for Cook to spread her Christian faith. Zahl said he dreamed last week that he was skiing behind Cook and her family. 鈥淓lla turned around and shouted confidently, self-assuredly, 鈥楥ome on, will you?'” he said, saying he believed God had shown himself through the dream.
鈥淚 pray now that everyone who has loved Ella so much in this life would be given a vivid, individual feeling of Ella鈥檚 love, still present with us,鈥� Zahl said. 鈥淏ecause Ella鈥檚 love is eternal and entirely altruistic.鈥�
Cook was an accomplished pianist who was studying French, math and economics at Brown, where she also served as vice president of the college Republicans. Her political activity brought a wave of reaction from national and Alabama Republicans. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff statewide in Cook’s memory.
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Amy reported from Atlanta, Georgia
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