Split image showing Brown University victims Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, alongside MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was killed. (Instagram/elinacoutlakis/GoFundMe/Jake Belcher for MIT)
BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF TERROR THAT LEFT 2 DEAD, 9 INJURED
Shieh is no stranger to what he says is bloated and wasteful spending by Brown. During his time at the school, he served as the publisher for the university’s student-run paper, the Brown Spectator, and caused a stir when he started asking questions about how much administrators make and what they do at work.
Shieh sent out a survey to administrators, asking them to detail their jobs after being inspired by President Donald Trump’s DOGE, but was met with opposition from faculty. He noted that administrators are making millions, while facilities and students’ quality of life suffer.
Brown took disciplinary action against the former student, first claiming he was causing emotional and psychological harm, invading privacy, misrepresenting the university, and violating operational rules.
Interior view of Barus and Holley Room 166. on the campus of Brown University in Providence, R.I.. On Saturday, December 13, around 4p.m., a masked man with a gun entered a review session in Barus & Holley Room 166 for ECON 0110: "Principles of Economics," shouted something indiscernible and opened fire. (Kenna Lee/The Brown Daily Herald)
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The University ultimately dropped all charges against Shieh, who wonders if some of the waste he was hoping to expose could be the reason that facilities weren’t equipped with cameras or better security.
"They use their money in really silly ways," Shieh said. "Like paying their athletic director of a small Ivy League school millions of dollars a year and having an inordinate amount of administrators on staff."
Shieh, who like Cook was a member of the school's College Republicans, said he was shocked when he learned she had been murdered.
"She was just somebody who was very nice and everybody respected, and nobody really had a problem with her on campus, which is why it was so surprising that it happened to her, of all people," Shieh said.
A homeless man living on Brown University's campus was a lead witness for investigators to find the killer. (FBI Boston)
On Nov. 13, Claudio Neves-Valente entered Brown’s campus and took the lives of Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov before driving 50 miles to Brookline, Massachusetts and killing MIT nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro two days later, according to authorities.
Neves-Valente avoided capture and a manhunt lasting several days followed. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in a storage shed Thursday night in Salem, New Hampshire.
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Law enforcement officials and investigators credit a homeless man who lived on Brown’s campus for providing an account of his interaction with Neves-Valente that eventually led to the shooter.
Had Brown University been equipped with preventative technology and had cameras in the facilities which the gunman targeted, it’s possible the shooter would have been apprehended and the MIT professor would not have been killed.
Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston
Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-brown-university-student-friend-ella-cook-blames-spending-priorities-lack-security