Dear Members of the Brown Community,

More than eight months after the shooting that took the lives of two of our students and devastated our community, Brown has continued to grapple with questions that are natural in the wake of such a tragedy. 

The events of Dec. 13, 2025, resulted in tragic loss of life, injuries that continue to heal, and a community figuring out its path to recovery and repair, even as we also continue to hear from students, faculty, staff and alumni asking what it means to be and feel safe at Brown. The Dec. 13 attack struck at the heart of who we are as a teaching and learning community, raising questions about how best to be a campus that is dedicated to openness while also being safe and secure. And there are questions about preventability — in the context of past events, but also for the future — that are natural following a violent attack like the one Brown experienced.

A report we are sharing with our community today, Safety and Security at Brown University: Overview and Action Plan, seeks to answer these questions. As we continue to mourn the victims and support the recovery of the injured students, we also remain resolute and steadfast in maintaining safety and security at the center of everything we do. The report shares the actions Brown has launched as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen security at Brown, while also responding to questions about Brown’s preparedness and response to the shooting. It arises from a set of external reviews of the events of Dec. 13 that we announced last spring.

In this message to our full Brown community — students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents —we are sharing an overview of the key findings of those reviews, as well as Brown’s action plan developed in the wake of the shooting. The report shares lessons learned from the external firms of highly experienced experts who were charged to follow the facts thoroughly, objectively and impartially. We hope it will help our community gain a deeper understanding of the incident, the ways Brown effectively responded to the tragedy, and how our response and level of preparation can be strengthened for the future. We know this is important for our community as we navigate the path to recovery.

In addition, we are publishing a webpage that responds to some frequently asked questions about the events surrounding Dec. 13. The University’s FAQ on the External Reviews of Safety and Security at Brown addresses common questions raised on campus and by the public following the attack. The FAQ is a companion to the report, and we encourage all members of our community to read both.

Key Findings of External Reviews Related to Dec. 13 Shooting

According to an external review of the Dec. 13 shooting, it is “highly unlikely” that the attack by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente at Brown could have been prevented; however, there are a number of actions the University should take to further strengthen preparedness and response capabilities. 

These are the core conclusions arising from the After-Action Review of the events of Dec. 13 conducted by the global consulting firm Teneo Risk to examine the University’s actions before, during and after the shooting, and a comprehensive assessment of Brown’s campus safety and security program. As we have shared previously, Teneo’s two reviews were launched by a special committee of the Corporation of Brown University, the institution’s governing body, in the months after Dec. 13. A third review conducted by COSECURE, a national firm specializing in physical security, involved a comprehensive assessment of all campus facilities and physical security infrastructure. All the reviews were conducted under the direction and supervision of outside legal counsel. 

As a reflection of the University’s commitment to transparency, Brown is sharing Teneo’s full executive summary of its After-Action Review. Given its core conclusions about preventability related to the shooting, Teneo states in its executive summary that the firm focused its recommendations for Brown on “how the organization prepares, works together, and responds to future mass casualty and/or life-safety events.” 

The external reviews found that the University had no advance indication that the perpetrator of the shooting posed a threat of violence to Brown. The assailant, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, was not a current student, was not a Brown employee and did not receive a degree from the University, attending for three semesters as a graduate student until taking a leave in 2001 and formally withdrawing, effective July 31, 2003. 

The review also found that Brown’s emergency response was effective at ensuring the welfare of Brown students in the aftermath of the shooting, despite significant logistical challenges. At the same time, the review identified actions that Brown can take to increase its capacity to prepare for and respond to future emergencies. More details about all these findings are in the After-Action executive summary embedded within the University’s report.

Teneo’s findings and recommendations focus on “strengthening Brown’s resilience and capacity” in the event of future major life-safety events. 

Action Plan for Today and the Future

The University has previously shared immediate actions taken as part of a rapid response plan after Dec. 13. The Safety and Security at Brown University: Overview and Action Plan shares additional actions to enhance our campus safety and security and respond more effectively to crises in the future. Brown has demonstrated a clear and unwavering commitment to safety and security spanning at least the past three decades, reflected in major investments in infrastructure, technology and intentional decisions to fund and arm a highly effective campus police force. The external reviews helped deepen and broaden Brown’s approach to continuous improvement.

Brown’s Safety and Security Action Plan — the second half of the report — is organized in six categories: (1) Governance and Accountability; (2) Leadership, Staffing, Organization and Training; (3) Emergency Preparedness and Protocols; (4) Tools and Technology; (5) Partnerships with External Law Enforcement and Local Organizations; and (6) Community Outreach and Engagement. The action plan provides the current status of actions, many of which were completed as the external teams made recommendations while their reviews were being finalized, and dates of completion for in-progress action steps.

The action steps draw on lessons, not only from the external reviews initiated after Dec. 13, but also from insights from a review of the DPSEM organization and leadership that had been underway at the time of the shooting. It also reflects feedback from community discussions and results from a DPSEM campus community survey on questions of safety and security, as well as safety and security initiatives that pre-dated Dec. 13.

One of the most important steps that Brown took immediately after the shooting was to appoint Chief Hugh T. Clements to the role of interim Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management. He formally assumed the role in April, after three months in the interim position.

DPSEM will continue to play an essential leading role in securing the campus and advancing safety and security initiatives. Chief Clements is nationally regarded for his expertise in community-oriented policing, and his appointment followed a distinguished 38-year career with the Providence Police Department, including 12 years as chief of police. He will continue to work in collaboration with other Brown leaders, members of DPSEM, and the Providence Police Department to play a major role in implementing the University’s Safety and Security Action Plan.

The Brown community will continue receiving updates regarding progress on the action plan over the course of the 2026-27 academic year. The action plan includes steps for involving the campus community in ongoing discussions about how best to add layers of security that diminish the risk of an active shooter incident, while also protecting the openness and respect for privacy that has long characterized American institutions of higher education. We also are continuing the planning for a campus memorial, and community engagement is part of that planning process. 

In Conclusion

We want to thank the many members of the Brown community who contributed insights, perspectives and experiences over the past eight months. Through listening sessions, focus groups, the DPSEM Community Survey and various campus conversations, community input helped inform the outcomes of the external reviews and Brown’s action plan. 

As noted at the end of the report, as a community we continue to recover from tragedy, but we are heartened by the positive impact of this moment for Brown. The enduring contribution of the external reviews rests in the ways the findings will continue to strengthen Brown’s security model for the future. And while there currently are no mechanisms for colleges and universities to predict or prevent acts of mass violence by individuals committed to perpetrating such attacks, there are no words to express the depth of our commitment to bolster security and to deter threats to Brown to the fullest extent possible. 

No campus should ever have to experience the senseless act of violence that has left a lasting mark on our community, and our commitment to the safety of those who live, work and study at Brown is enduring and unwavering.

Sincerely,

Brian T. Moynihan
Chancellor

Christina H. Paxson
President