Brown University repeatedly dismissed security warnings from students, staff, and police over several years, the New York Post reports.
The news comes after investigators said Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, killed two and injured nine others last Saturday at the Ivy League university.
Neves Valente, 48, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility Thursday night.
Although Brown officials say there are 1,200 cameras on campus, the engineering building has few, if any, cameras.
Investigators believe the shooter entered and left through a door that faces a residential street bordering campus, which might explain why the cameras Brown does have didn’t capture footage of the person.
The building also didn’t have a swipe-card mechanism. It didn’t have a security officer posted at the front either.
The Post pointed to several questionable incidents at the university over the years where security was lax, including in 2021, when school officials refused to call Providence police after a caller claimed to have placed bombs throughout campus and was carrying an AR-15 rifle.
“Officers of this department, myself included, worry that Brown’s desire to protect its reputation, at all costs, leads to a willingness to gamble with our lives,” Michael Greco, a 17-year school safety officer at Brown, said.
Greco was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder months after the bomb threat and sued the university. He wrote in an email to the administration, according to the student paper.
The two Brown students killed during a study session for final exams were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook, who was vice president of the Brown College Republicans, and 18-year-old freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, who aspired to be a doctor.
Six of those wounded were in stable condition and three had been discharged as of Thursday, officials said.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. He was admitted to the graduate school to study physics beginning in September 2000.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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