3 Brown University Students Sue Over December Shooting

Three Brown University freshmen who say they were seriously injured in December’s mass shooting on campus are suing the institution, saying the violence occurred “as a direct and proximate result of Brown’s” negligence.

Claudio Neves Valente killed two students and injured nine others on Dec. 13. Valente went on to kill a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor before killing himself.

The unnamed students’ lawsuits, filed last week in Rhode Island Superior Court, say they’re among the nine survivors, and their injuries are permanent. They say Brown failed to properly secure and monitor the Barus and Holley building, where the shooting occurred in an auditorium.

The students’ attorneys wrote that “students and non-students alike were free to enter and move through the building without meaningful restriction” and that it had “only two exterior cameras, and interior camera coverage did not include Tanner Auditorium or the hallways immediately surrounding it.” The lawyers further allege Brown didn’t properly respond to multiple warnings of Valente’s suspicious behavior, including a custodian’s report that he appeared to have been studying the building before the day of the attack.

“Brown University took no known reasonable or meaningful steps to investigate the reported threat, identify Valente, restrict his access to the building, increase monitoring or security presence, or otherwise secure Barus and Holley,” the suits say, adding that the university’s alleged conduct “was so willful, reckless, and wicked as to amount to criminality, which, for the good of society and as a warning to Brown, ought to be punished by an award of punitive damages over and above that provided in an award of compensatory damages.”

In an email to Inside Higher Ed, a university spokesperson said, “Brown is reviewing the complaints carefully and promptly. Out of respect for the privacy interests of the plaintiffs, we have no details to share on the merits of the litigation at this time. We will respond as appropriate through the legal process. We remain committed to the safety and security of our community and to supporting the path to recovery and repair for our students, faculty, staff and members of the broader community.”