Brown University put police chief on leave after deadly shooting

Brown University’s police chief has been placed on leave, more than a week after a deadly mass shooting that killed two and injured nine others.

The decision was announced by the Ivy League school’s president Christina Paxson on Monday, who said it is part of a “standard” review into campus safety in light of the attack.

Rodney Chatman, the police chief at the Rhode Island university, is on leave “effective immediately”, Ms Paxson said.

Police have been criticised for their response to the shooting and their failure to quickly identify and apprehend a suspect. Earlier on Monday, the US Department of Education said it is also reviewing safety at the college in light of the shooting.

Six days after the attack, authorities identified the suspect in the 13 December shooting as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national.

Valente, who had previously studied at Brown University, was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire on Friday.

Officials said they also believe Valente killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor two days after the shooting at Brown University. A motive in both shootings has not been released.

In her statement on Monday, Ms Paxson praised the “bravery, dedication and commitment” of the campus officers who responded on the day of the attack.

But she acknowledged “anxiety, fear and stress” on campus in the aftermath of the shooting, and said the university is taking immediate steps to address those concerns.

Among those steps will be a review of the response to the shooting, and a review of Brown University’s current safety policies, both of which will be conducted by the school’s highest governing body, she said.

Her statement comes after the US Department of Education said on Monday that it will be reviewing Brown’s response to the shooting.

President Donald Trump had criticised the university for not having enough security cameras on campus after the shooting. Ms Paxson has said that the campus has 1,200 security cameras.

Authorities said the suspect entered a building used for Brown’s engineering and physics programmes and fired at least 44 rounds from his pistol at students.

The two people killed in the attack were identified as Ella Cook, 19, a second-year student from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, an Uzbek-American first-year student.