By Isabelle Lafont
December 19, 2025
Ella Cook (left) and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (right) were killed at Brown University on December 13 by a lone gunman.
Two students were killed, and nine were injured last Saturday in a mass shooting at Brown University in Providence.
The two students killed were Ella Cook (class of '28) and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (class of '29).
Umurzakov was an 18-year-old from Midlothian, VA, who immigrated to the U.S from Uzbekistan in 2011. He was interested in becoming a neurosurgeon so he could help children like the ones who had helped him with his Chiari malformation.
Cook was a 19-year-old sophomore from Mountain Brook, AL. She was Vice President of the college's Republican Club and worked at an ice cream shop during the summer. So far, there is no evidence that the victims were targets for this shooting.
The shooting happened at around 4 PM in the Barus and Holley building on the Brown campus, where the students were doing a final exam review for an economics class.
The case is still being investigated. No motive has been established. Police are continuing to interview the students who were in the classroom at the time of the shooting, according to the Chief of Police in Providence, Oscar L. Perez, Jr.
The authorities detained a man on Sunday morning at a Providence hotel. He was later released because the evidence pointed the investigators in a different direction.
Yesterday, investigators tracked down who they believe to be the shooter. A former Brown student, he was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, New Hampshire.
Officials say that he is also connected to the murder of a M.I.T. professor that happened in Brookline on Monday night.
Isabelle Lafont, class of 2028, is a staff writer for the Dedham Mirror. In her free time, she enjoys playing field hockey and tennis and spending time with friends!