He Wasn’t Even in the Class. She Almost Switched Seats. Now Brown Is Mourning Them.
Gunman ended students’ dreams of studying in Paris, becoming a neurosurgeon.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The two Brown University students killed in Saturday’s shooting were a freshman who wasn’t even enrolled in the economics class where the gunman opened fire, and a sophomore who almost changed her seat.
Ella Cook, a math whiz from Alabama with a deep Christian faith and plans to study in Paris next year, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, the son of doctors from Uzbekistan with dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, were shot in a lecture hall during a review for an economics final. Friends and family said it was tragic happenstance that either ended up in their ill-fated seats.
On Monday evening, police were still hunting for the shooter as grieving students left campus after classes and exams were canceled. A person of interest had been detained over the weekend but was released.
Umurzokov, a first-year student, began his journey to Brown when his parents emigrated to the U.S. when he was four and settled outside Richmond, Va. A few years later, he went to New York where a neurosurgeon operated on him to relieve fluid from his brain. It marked the moment Umurzokov set his goal of becoming a neurosurgeon, his older sister Rukhsora Umurzokova said.
The middle of three children and the only boy, Mukhammad was studious and curious, Rukhsora said. “You would catch him at home watching educational videos. He loved history.”
Eno Thomson-Tribe, a friend and classmate of Umurzokov, described him as “wickedly funny, while also deeply loving and caring.”
On Saturday, Umurzokov ate brunch with his friend Joseph McGonagle. Umurzokov was planning to see a movie with a friend that evening, McGonagle said.
Umurzokov also enjoyed accompanying friends to review sessions for classes, just to keep them company. After brunch, he decided to tag along with a friend to an econ review at the school’s Barus & Holley engineering building.
Just before 3 p.m., Umurzokov sent a message to McGonagle and others with a photo from the review session room. “Got dragged to econ teview,” he joked, mistyping ‘review.’
Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant conducting the review, didn’t recognize Umurzokov—he wasn’t enrolled in the class, Oduro said. But they chatted when Umurzokov and a friend arrived at the lecture hall about 10 minutes early.
They sat on the third row on the left side. Just two rows up sat someone Oduro knew well: Ella Cook, who had been in Oduro’s section during the semester.
Cook was an outstanding student, always prepared and engaged in discussions, Oduro said. She had focused on French and math her freshman year but was considering switching to economics, said friends.
At one point, as Oduro spoke from the front of the classroom, he watched Cook signal to a pal across the lecture hall. It was clear she wanted to get up and join her, Oduro said.
“You could kind of see them making eye contact,” Oduro said. “She was about to get up, to move and sit next to her friend, but she felt a little bit embarrassed, you could just tell from her face.”
At the end of class, Oduro saw a lone figure dressed in black and wearing a ski mask enter the lecture hall from a door at the top left. For a brief moment the two men locked eyes. Then the intruder screamed something indecipherable and raised his gun. Oduro ducked as the gunman shot what he estimates were about 40 bullets into the lecture hall.
Oduro was face down as the hail of bullets smashed into the room, but said he believes that Cook and Umurzokov were struck first because the two were sitting on the left and were already walking up the aisle when the gunman entered.
“I wish (Cook) had gotten up and moved,” he said. “I wish she had sat with her friend.”
A fervent Alabama football fan, Cook was a member of the political union who loved debate. She served as vice president of Brown’s College Republicans chapter, according to Martin Bertao, president of College Republicans of America.
Her hometown church in Birmingham, the Cathedral Church of the Advent, described her during a Sunday service as “an incredibly grounded, generous and faithful, bright light.”
At Brown, Cook was involved with the university’s Catholic community, said associate chaplain Justin Bolger, who described her as “sweet and strong.”
“She carried herself with grace but was really strong in her principles and her faith, which isn’t easy in a secular campus,” Bolger said, noting that her advocacy took her to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in January.
Cook joined a fall retreat to Camp Woodstock in Connecticut, attended Bible study, and hung out at the Brown-RISD Catholic Community center, where a memorial for her was set up ahead of a noon mass on Monday morning.
Umurzokov’s sister said the family is devastated by the loss and the randomness of the shooting.
“It wasn’t even his class. He just happened to be there,” she said.
This weekend, Umurzokov’s parents were on a flight to Saudi Arabia on a religious trip. Rukhsora texted to them that there had been a shooting at Brown and she was trying to locate Mukhammad. By the time they landed, she had learned that he was dead. She told her parents, who turned around and flew to Rhode Island.
“We want to get a story out there so he doesn’t end up being just one of two dead,” Rukhsora said. “We just don’t want him to be a number or just a statistic of what is happening around the U.S. right now. We want people to know who he really was and how amazing he was.”
Write to Douglas Belkin at Doug.Belkin@wsj.com, Neil Mehta at neil.mehta@wsj.com and Jared Mitovich at jared.mitovich@wsj.com
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The two Brown University students killed in Saturday’s shooting were a freshman who wasn’t even enrolled in the economics class where the gunman opened fire, and a sophomore who almost changed her seat.
Ella Cook, a math whiz from Alabama with a deep Christian faith and plans to study in Paris next year, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, the son of doctors from Uzbekistan with dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, were shot in a lecture hall during a review for an economics final. Friends and family said it was tragic happenstance that either ended up in their ill-fated seats.
On Monday evening, police were still hunting for the shooter as grieving students left campus after classes and exams were canceled. A person of interest had been detained over the weekend but was released.
Umurzokov, a first-year student, began his journey to Brown when his parents emigrated to the U.S. when he was four and settled outside Richmond, Va. A few years later, he went to New York where a neurosurgeon operated on him to relieve fluid from his brain. It marked the moment Umurzokov set his goal of becoming a neurosurgeon, his older sister Rukhsora Umurzokova said.
The middle of three children and the only boy, Mukhammad was studious and curious, Rukhsora said. “You would catch him at home watching educational videos. He loved history.”
Eno Thomson-Tribe, a friend and classmate of Umurzokov, described him as “wickedly funny, while also deeply loving and caring.”
On Saturday, Umurzokov ate brunch with his friend Joseph McGonagle. Umurzokov was planning to see a movie with a friend that evening, McGonagle said.
Umurzokov also enjoyed accompanying friends to review sessions for classes, just to keep them company. After brunch, he decided to tag along with a friend to an econ review at the school’s Barus & Holley engineering building.
Just before 3 p.m., Umurzokov sent a message to McGonagle and others with a photo from the review session room. “Got dragged to econ teview,” he joked, mistyping ‘review.’
Joseph Oduro, the teaching assistant conducting the review, didn’t recognize Umurzokov—he wasn’t enrolled in the class, Oduro said. But they chatted when Umurzokov and a friend arrived at the lecture hall about 10 minutes early.
They sat on the third row on the left side. Just two rows up sat someone Oduro knew well: Ella Cook, who had been in Oduro’s section during the semester.
Cook was an outstanding student, always prepared and engaged in discussions, Oduro said. She had focused on French and math her freshman year but was considering switching to economics, said friends.
At one point, as Oduro spoke from the front of the classroom, he watched Cook signal to a pal across the lecture hall. It was clear she wanted to get up and join her, Oduro said.
“You could kind of see them making eye contact,” Oduro said. “She was about to get up, to move and sit next to her friend, but she felt a little bit embarrassed, you could just tell from her face.”
At the end of class, Oduro saw a lone figure dressed in black and wearing a ski mask enter the lecture hall from a door at the top left. For a brief moment the two men locked eyes. Then the intruder screamed something indecipherable and raised his gun. Oduro ducked as the gunman shot what he estimates were about 40 bullets into the lecture hall.
Oduro was face down as the hail of bullets smashed into the room, but said he believes that Cook and Umurzokov were struck first because the two were sitting on the left and were already walking up the aisle when the gunman entered.
“I wish (Cook) had gotten up and moved,” he said. “I wish she had sat with her friend.”
A fervent Alabama football fan, Cook was a member of the political union who loved debate. She served as vice president of Brown’s College Republicans chapter, according to Martin Bertao, president of College Republicans of America.
Her hometown church in Birmingham, the Cathedral Church of the Advent, described her during a Sunday service as “an incredibly grounded, generous and faithful, bright light.”
At Brown, Cook was involved with the university’s Catholic community, said associate chaplain Justin Bolger, who described her as “sweet and strong.”
“She carried herself with grace but was really strong in her principles and her faith, which isn’t easy in a secular campus,” Bolger said, noting that her advocacy took her to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in January.
Cook joined a fall retreat to Camp Woodstock in Connecticut, attended Bible study, and hung out at the Brown-RISD Catholic Community center, where a memorial for her was set up ahead of a noon mass on Monday morning.
Umurzokov’s sister said the family is devastated by the loss and the randomness of the shooting.
“It wasn’t even his class. He just happened to be there,” she said.
This weekend, Umurzokov’s parents were on a flight to Saudi Arabia on a religious trip. Rukhsora texted to them that there had been a shooting at Brown and she was trying to locate Mukhammad. By the time they landed, she had learned that he was dead. She told her parents, who turned around and flew to Rhode Island.
“We want to get a story out there so he doesn’t end up being just one of two dead,” Rukhsora said. “We just don’t want him to be a number or just a statistic of what is happening around the U.S. right now. We want people to know who he really was and how amazing he was.”
Write to Douglas Belkin at Doug.Belkin@wsj.com, Neil Mehta at neil.mehta@wsj.com and Jared Mitovich at jared.mitovich@wsj.com
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