Brown University students injured in mass shooting sue school for negligence

Three students injured in a 2025 shooting at Brown University sued the school, alleging the university failed on multiple fronts to protect students from harm.

The three lawsuits, filed Thursday in Providence Superior Court, allege that the school had multiple opportunities to prevent the Dec. 13 shooting that left two students dead and 11 others injured. The students were studying for finals in the Barus and Holley building at the time of the shooting.

Two days later, the gunman, Claudio Neves Valente, also killed an MIT professor in a Brookline home. He then drove to a New Hampshire storage facility, where he shot and killed himself. Police found his body on Dec. 18.

The students, each identified in the complaints J. Doe, claim that Brown did not have a "meaningful entry restriction" to stop Valente from accessing Barus and Holley, only had two security cameras to monitor the building and did not have proper exits for students to escape within the auditorium-style classroom.

They also claim Brown failed to act on a tip from university custodian Derek Lisi, who had reported to campus security that he saw a man who appeared to be "casing" the building multiple times in weeks leading to the shooting.

The students are seeking punitive damages, saying the university’s failure to properly secure the building or act on information about Valente "was so willful, reckless, and wicked as to amount to criminality." They have requested a jury trial, and are being represented by lawyers Mark Decof, Jeffrey Mega and Michael Quinn Jr.

In a statement to WBUR on Monday, Brown said it's reviewing the complaints, but had no additional information to share at the time.

"We remain committed to the safety and security of our community and to supporting the path to recovery and repair for our students, faculty, staff and members of the broader community," the school's statement said.

A hearing on the cases is scheduled for May 5.

With reporting from WBUR's newsroom.