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Report: Brown security vendor claims custodian was told to report shooting suspect to police

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PBN Staff

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12/24/2025

Brown University Shooting — THIS IMAGE provided by Providence police shows surveillance images of Claudio Neves Valente, a suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University. Valente, 48, of Torres Novas, Portugal, was found dead Dec. 18 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility. /PROVIDENCE POLICE DEPT. VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PROVIDENCE – A third-party security vendor at Brown University is disputing claims made by a campus custodian who said he repeatedly reported the suspect believed to be responsible for the deadly shooting on Dec. 13. Event Staff Services LLC President David Madonna told WPRI-TV CBS 12 on Tuesday that custodian Derek Lisi, who previously said he warned

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PROVIDENCE – A third-party security vendor at Brown University is disputing claims made by a campus custodian who said he repeatedly reported the suspect believed to be responsible for the deadly shooting on Dec. 13. Event Staff Services LLC President David Madonna told WPRI-TV CBS 12 on Tuesday that custodian Derek Lisi, who previously said he warned the company about the suspicious man, was instructed to report the information to the university police. “We recognize everyone wants to be helpful; however, one person’s version of events may not necessarily be the way things happened,” Madonna said in a statement to WPRI. “Our role is not an investigative one, and the individual was told to provide that information to Brown Police.” Lisi told WPRI in an earlier interview that he remembers seeing Claudio Neves Valente multiple times before he allegedly went into the Barus and Holley building and fatally shot two students and wounded nine others on Dec. 13. “Something kept telling me, ‘Don’t ignore it. Don’t ignore it,'” Lisi said. Lisi claimed he repeatedly warned Event Staff Services but was told at one point that the company was only on campus to staff an event. He said he was never instructed to contact Brown Police. “I was trying to be helpful,” Lisi said. “If they check IDs and if they check bags, then why didn’t they check his?" Madonna said Event Staff Services LLC was not on campus on one of the dates Lisi recalled notifying a security officer. On Dec. 13 investigators say Valente entered a study session in a Brown academic building and opened fire on students, killing sophomore Ella Cook, 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others. Two days later, authorities say Neves Valente, who had been a graduate student at Brown studying physics during the 2000-01 school year, also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home. Valente, 48, of Torres Novas, Portugal, was found dead Dec. 18 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility. On Dec. 22, Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said Brown’s head of public safety Rodney Chatman was replaced by Hugh T. Clements, former police chief of the Providence Police Department. Chatman had previously faced a vote of no confidence by the union representing school police officers in October. Numerous media outlets reported at the time that the union said the vote reflected “serious concerns over the failed leadership, contract violations, and policies that jeopardize public safety." The scrutiny over the school's security has led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, which said earlier that officials are asking Brown for information to help determine if school officials violated federal campus safety and security requirements. This has included seeking security reports, audits, dispatch and call logs and when emergency notifications have been utilized. (Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)