Trump administration to review safety at Brown University after campus shooting
US President Donald Trump had previously criticised the university for having “so few security cameras”.
· CNA · JoinRead a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
The United States Department of Education on Monday (Dec 22) said it was reviewing safety at Brown University in response to a mass shooting on the campus earlier this month.
Federal officials will scrutinise Brown’s emergency notification and campus surveillance systems, the department said in a statement. Almost a week after the shooting, the suspect - who was also accused of killing an MIT professor in the Boston area - was found dead.
Brown's president, Christina Paxson, has said her institution is “deeply committed” to campus safety and security. She has said that one of her university's two emergency notification systems sent text messages and emails to 20,000 individuals after the shooting.
She has also said that a second siren system was not set off for fear it would prompt people to rush for safety into the building where the shooting occurred.
Paxson also said last week that the campus has 1,200 security cameras. Officials said the attack occurred in an older part of a facility that had few or no cameras.
President Donald Trump had previously criticised the university in a Truth Social post for having “so few security cameras”.
The suspect, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a building used for Brown's engineering and physics programmes on Dec 13 and fired at least 44 rounds from his 9mm pistol, killing two students and wounding nine, according to police in Providence, Rhode Island.
He was found dead in a storage rental facility in Salem, New Hampshire, after a five-day manhunt.
The Education Department has ordered Brown to submit extensive records by Jan 30, including crime logs, annual security reports and internal protocols relating to emergency notifications and active shooter response.
The review will look at whether the school violated a law that requires universities to meet certain campus safety and security requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid.
Sign up for our newsletters
Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app