Three unnamed students who were injured in the Dec. 13 campus shooting at Brown University in Providence have filed lawsuits against the university, alleging the school ignored earlier warnings about the gunman and failed to provide security measures they say could have prevented the tragedy, according to the complaints and a statement from Brown.
The lawsuits, which were filed last week in Rhode Island Superior Court, each name Brown University and seek damages. The complaints allege that the students suffered injuries as a “direct and proximate result” of Brown’s alleged negligence, and they contend the school did not maintain what they describe as “reasonable and appropriate security measures,” the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuits do not identify the students, citing privacy interests. In a statement, Brown said it is reviewing the complaints “carefully and promptly,” while declining to share details “on the merits of the litigation at this time,” Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark said.
The lawsuits center on the events of Dec. 13, when law enforcement said gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a study session in a Brown academic building and opened fire on students. Law enforcement said he killed 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounded nine others.
According to law enforcement, Valente—described as a former graduate student at Brown who had studied physics about 20 years earlier—also fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro two days later at Loureiro’s Boston-area home. Valente was later found dead at a New Hampshire storage facility, authorities said; they said he killed himself. An autopsy determined that Valente died Dec. 16, the same day Loureiro died in a hospital.
The lawsuits allege that Brown’s campus security was alerted by a custodian that Valente had been “casing” the building but that the school did not investigate those reports, according to the Associated Press account of the complaints. The alleged failure to respond to those reports is among the core issues raised by the students.
Brown’s response to the shooting included placing campus police on leave shortly after the Dec. 13 attack amid a review of the school’s security policies, AP reported. Much of the public focus since then has included questions about whether security cameras were installed in the building where the attack took place and how accessible campus buildings were.
Asked by reporters for comment on the lawsuits, Clark said Brown was reviewing them and did not provide further detail, emphasizing privacy interests tied to the plaintiffs and the active litigation.