Brown faces US probe over security after deadly shooting

Greg Ryan, Bloomberg News on Dec 23, 2025

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Brown University placed its campus police chief on administrative leave and the Trump administration announced an investigation into the school’s security measures after a shooting rampage this month that killed two students and injured nine others.

The Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid will review whether Brown violated the Clery Act, a 1990 law that requires colleges to uphold certain safety and security standards, according to a statement on Monday. Brown President Christina Paxson separately on Monday announced plans to overhaul campus security and said vice president for public safety and emergency management, Rodney Chatman, will be placed on administrative leave.

State and local officials have said a lack of clear security-camera footage from inside the Barus & Holley engineering building where the shooting took place slowed the search for the shooter. The body of the suspected shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found after a multiday manhunt in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Police say Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national who attended Brown as a student, took his own life.

If a school is found to have violated the Clery Act, it could be subject to fines or suspended from accessing federal aid.

“The Trump Administration will fight to ensure that recipients of federal funding are vigorously protecting students’ safety and following security procedures as required under federal law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.

McMahon’s department said reporting in the wake of the incident showed that Brown’s surveillance and security systems may not have met adequate standards, allowing the suspect to escape. It also said Brown students and staff reported that emergency notifications about the active shooter were delayed.

Paxson on Monday evening announced steps that the university will take to address campus security, including installing more cameras and “panic alarms.” The school is also commissioning external reviews of its handling of campus safety before, during and after the shooting as well as its security protocols more broadly, she said.

Hugh Clements, a former police chief for the city of Providence, will lead public safety at the school on an interim basis.

A Brown spokesperson said that Paxson’s announcement was made separately from the probe and that the university will respond to the Department of Education directly about the investigation.

A custodian at the university saw Valente almost a dozen times on campus in the weeks before the shooting and twice reported what he viewed as suspicious behavior to a security representative, the Boston Globe reported Monday. The suspected shooter was looking into classrooms, including spending time around the room where the shooting later took place, the custodian, Derek Lisi, told the Globe.

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(With assistance from Liam Knox and Mark Schoifet.)

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