Two Victims Identified in the Ivy League School Shooting as Police Press On With Hunt for Perpetrator.
Both young individuals who were killed in Saturday’s tragic incident in Providence were being remembered Monday – as a manhunt for their killer persisted following the freeing by authorities in Rhode Island of the sole person detained in connection in the case.
Honoring a Lost Student
Ella Cook, a second-year scholar from Alabama, was called “an incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light”, per the Advent Cathedral in Birmingham, which paid tribute to her at a ceremony on Sunday.
Her role included the vice-presidency of Brown’s division of the College Republicans organization, the group said. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also posted condolences on social media, stating: “Words cannot express. Thinking of her family and friends, especially her parents.”
An International Student
The other deceased individual was MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national in his freshman year at the renowned school, family members said.
Umurzokov’s identity was confirmed by Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry.
“He was exceptionally gentle, witty, and bright. He harbored grand aspirations of entering the field of neurosurgery and helping people,” his sibling Samira said in a tribute.
The Shooting Incident
An additional nine individuals were hurt in the violent event in the school of engineering of Brown’s campus in Providence, during the university's examination week.
Authorities said on Sunday evening that a 24-year-old male taken into custody in a search at a lodging about 17 miles from the scene earlier in the day was released from custody.
“There is a killer at large,” said the state's top prosecutor, Peter Neronha.
He continued, “Sometimes you head in one direction, and then you need to change course and pursue a different angle, and that is the current situation over the last approximately one day.”
Community Anxiety
Providence’s mayor, Brett Smiley, admitted: “We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our public”.
The assailant began shooting inside a lecture hall in the engineering facility on Saturday afternoon, discharging in excess of 40 shots from a handgun, a police source reported to the media outlet.
Police that entered the hotel recovered two handguns and two ammunition clips when the person of interest was arrested, the news agency reported.
The Wounded Victims
Regarding the nine injured, a single scholar was discharged from care, stated Brown’s president, Christina Paxson. Seven more were in critical but stable condition, and one remained in critical care, authorities stated on Sunday.
A private school, a private academy in the city of Durham, said a former student, Kendall Turner, was in the group of seriously hurt victims.
Further Tributes
Cook was remembered at a church service in Birmingham on Sunday. A pastor commented, “Her presence was a wonderful, steady, pious glow not only in her youth... but at Brown she was an incredible light in that particular place as well.”
The president of College Republicans, Martin Bertao, posted a statement from the organization. “Ella was known for her fearless, heroic, and gentle spirit as she aided her club and fellow classmates,” he said.
An American diplomat, Jonathan Henick, said he was “extremely sorrowful” by the student's death in a message. “We extend our sincere condolences to Mr Umurzokov’s family, loved ones, and fellow students and lament the passing of his bright future.”
National Context
The weekend's murders at Brown, the seventh oldest in the US college with about thousands of bachelor's and three thousand graduate students, occurred during one of at least 392 mass shootings documented across the United States so far in the current year, according to statistics. That Monday marked the 349th day of the year.