On December 13, 2025, 19-year-old Ella Cook, a Brown University sophomore from Alabama, was killed when gunfire erupted inside a classroom on Brown’s Providence campus. Nine other people were wounded as students fled and emergency responders converged; candles and memorials appeared as friends and family remembered Cook for a quiet smile, steady faith, and a kind, encouraging presence. Her home church in Birmingham and an obituary shared by her family highlighted her openness to new places and the way she lifted others up.

Investigators pursued tips, released images and sightings, and at one point named a person of interest before the state’s attorney general said there was no basis to keep treating that person that way. Authorities later said the suspected shooter, Claudio Neves Valente, a former Brown graduate student and Portuguese national, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage facility. Investigators described using tips, vehicle and camera data to trace movement across state lines and noted gaps in camera coverage in the older part of the engineering building where the attack occurred.

Have any readers who knew Ella or were on campus that day seen details that could still help clarify what happened?