A chilling premonition hung over Brown University in the weeks leading up to the December 13th shooting, according to a custodian who repeatedly observed the suspect’s unsettling behavior. Derek Lisi, a longtime employee at the university, noticed a man exhibiting increasingly suspicious actions within the Barus and Holley engineering and physics building.
Lisi described the man pacing hallways, peering into classrooms, and actively attempting to avoid detection – even ducking into a bathroom to remain unseen. Over approximately ten encounters beginning in early January, a growing sense of unease settled over Lisi, who felt something was profoundly “off” about the individual.
The custodian’s concerns escalated to the point where he alerted a campus security guard in mid-November, specifically mentioning the man’s persistent presence and his focus on room 166 – the very location where the tragic shooting would later unfold. He voiced his apprehension, hoping his observation would be taken seriously.
When police released images of the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, Lisi immediately recognized him. The face matched the man he’d been watching, the man he believed had been “casing that place for weeks,” a terrifying realization that sent a shiver down his spine.
The December 13th attack claimed the lives of Ella Cook, 19, the vice president of the Brown University College Republicans, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. Nine others were injured, with five still recovering in stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital. The campus community is grappling with immense grief and a search for answers.
Lisi recalled his final sighting of the man on December 1st, just before leaving for vacation, and a desperate hope that his fears were unfounded. “I told my friend, ‘I hope it’s not the guy I’ve been seeing,’” he remembered, a haunting echo of his intuition.
He contacted Providence Police on December 15th, sharing his observations and the unsettling pattern he had witnessed. Lisi also pointed to a longstanding security vulnerability within the Barus and Holley building, describing it as easily accessible to anyone, a “free-for-all” that potentially facilitated the suspect’s undetected surveillance.
Ella Cook was laid to rest in Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday morning, a somber farewell to a young life cut tragically short. The weight of loss and the lingering questions surrounding the events continue to impact the Brown University community.
