The Brown shooting is now prompting renewed scrutiny of campus safety leadership after the university placed its head of public safety on administrative leave amid revelations that warning signs surfaced weeks before the attack. Brown University announced Monday that public safety chief Rodney Chatman was removed as the school launched an external after-action review following the December 13 shooting that killed two people and injured nine.
In an email to the campus community, Brown said the review will include “a complete assessment and evaluation of campus safety in the period leading up to the tragedy.” The move follows criticism that the university delayed emergency alerts by nearly 20 minutes and never activated campus sirens.
The pressure intensified after janitor Derek Lisi told the Boston Globe he repeatedly spotted the eventual gunman, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, roaming campus buildings. Lisi said he saw the suspect nearly a dozen times “circling the hallways,” peering into classrooms, and hiding in bathrooms. “He’d been casing that place for weeks,” Lisi said. “I knew there was something off with him.”
Lisi reported the suspicious behavior to Event Staffing Services employees, believing they were security guards. The company’s president later clarified that staff are unarmed and not responsible for building security. At least one employee contacted campus police.
After the Brown shooting, Lisi immediately recognized Valente once police released images two days later. “I knew it was him because I could tell by the walk,” he said. “He had a pretty distinctive walk.” Police interviewed Lisi the same night Valente fatally shot MIT professor Nuno Loureiro.
Chatman, who joined Brown in 2021 after student activists called to abolish campus police, had already faced two votes of no confidence. Despite the criticism, Brown president Christina Paxson praised campus police and did not apologize for the response. The university has since retained former federal prosecutor Zachary Cunha as lawsuits loom.
