Staff Reports
America watched in horror as a mass shooting ripped through Brown University, leaving two students dead and nine others wounded while a suspect remains at large as police renew a manhunt. This was not some distant headline — it happened in the middle of finals week inside Barus & Holley Hall, a place where parents expect learning, not slaughter.
One of the students killed has now been identified as Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore and vice president of Brown’s College Republicans, a fact that raises grave questions about whether conservative students are being specifically targeted on our nation’s campuses. The other victim has been named as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an aspiring neurosurgeon, underscoring the senseless waste of young talent and promise.
Officials say the motive remains under investigation and law enforcement is moving carefully, but citizens have a right to ask whether political hatred and a campus culture that tolerates intimidation helped set the stage for this violence. Surveillance footage shows a lone suspect in dark clothing, and a person briefly detained has been released as police follow new leads — the public deserves transparency, not platitudes.
Brown administrators must explain how an armed assailant could enter an academic building during exam season, when students are supposed to be secure, and why doors were reportedly unsecured during a review session. Universities that preach safety and inclusion cannot be allowed to become places where ideology trumps basic precautions and the next generation learns to fear speech and association.
Law enforcement needs full support to catch this shooter, and officials should face tough questions about coordination, evidence handling, and the speed of their response to early leads. A released person of interest and a renewed canvass for video footage are signs the investigation is active, but patience should not substitute for accountability — every resource must be marshaled until the perpetrator is behind bars.
For conservatives on campus, this is a chilling moment. Ella Cook represented the brave students who refuse to be silenced by mob mentality or university indifference, and her death should stiffen our resolve to protect political diversity on college grounds rather than being used as a cudgel by partisan commentators.
The media and some politicians will rush to politicize this tragedy, offering instant narratives before investigations conclude; that impulse is not only irresponsible but corrosive. We must demand facts from authorities while calling out the toxic rhetoric that too often surrounds campus conflicts — America cannot normalize violence as political theater.
Now is the time for sober action: strengthen campus security, ensure robust mental-health intervention, and protect students of every political stripe from harassment and worse. The shooter must be found, prosecuted, and punished, and every institution that failed these young people must be held to account until parents can once again trust that their children are safe in classrooms, not targets.
