Providence Retains National Organization To Review Brown University Mass Shooting Response

PROVIDENCE, RI — The city of Providence has retained a national organization to review its response to the Brown University mass shooting.

The Police Executive Research Forum, a national membership organization of police executives, will conduct the third-party review, according to a media release.

"The Providence community deserves an independent, third-party review to carefully assess the response to this tragic incident,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in the release.

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“Acts of violence like this leave deep and lasting impacts, not only on the victims and their loved ones, but on the entire community," Smiley said. "The devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket is a painful reminder of how deeply these moments affect families, neighborhoods and entire cities."

A gunman fired at least 44 shots in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, killing two and wounding eight others the afternoon of Dec. 13. The Providence police and the FBI identified the shooter as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student and Portuguese national living in Miami.

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Neves Valente was also linked to the shooting death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro, who was found mortally wounded in his Brookline home Dec. 15, with the feds calling the connection a certainty.

Five days after the Brown University mass shooting, Neves Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit.

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The Police Executive Research Forum will review reports, conduct confidential interviews and facilitate after-action discussion, according to the release.

"At a minimum, the review will examine equipment and technology (including the City’s Real Time Crime Center and tools such as license plate readers, AI-enabled technologies, cameras, drones, DNA and gunshot detection systems), inter-agency coordination, investigative processes and public communications," the release said.

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The three-phase review is scheduled for 210 days and will cost $95,000 — "paid in installments tied to project milestones" — plus expenses, according to the release.

“We are undertaking this review with seriousness and a clear sense of responsibility,” Smiley said in the release.

“At a time when our neighbors in Pawtucket are grieving and our own community continues to heal, we are reminded that our responsibility is not only to understand what happened, but to act on what we learn," Smiley said. "We must continue strengthening how we serve, protect and support our residents, and do everything in our power to help prevent future tragedies."

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