{"id":833,"date":"2025-12-16T12:51:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T17:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/?p=833"},"modified":"2025-12-16T12:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T17:51:53","slug":"community-mourns-ella-cook-first-named-casualty-in-brown-university-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/2025\/12\/community-mourns-ella-cook-first-named-casualty-in-brown-university-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Mourns Ella Cook, First Named Casualty in Brown University Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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College Republicans of America \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The investigation continues after a gunman opened fire in a classroom at the Barus and Holley engineering building in Brown University during final exams. To date, two people have been killed and nine injured. Authorities had detained a person of interest but later released him, stating the evidence was pointing in a different direction. The hunt for the shooter continues.<\/p>\n

The two students killed during the attack were MuhammadAziz Umurzakov and Ella Cook. Cook was the first casualty to be publicly identified. She was a 19-year-old sophomore student from Mountain Brook, Alabama. Cook served as the vice president for the school\u2019s Republican club. She was also a parishioner at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Rev. Craig Smalley of Cathedral Church called Cook<\/a> \u201can incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light\u201d during church service on December 14. \u201cShe was an incredible light, not only here growing up at the Advent in the myriad ways in which she served faithfully and encouraged those around her but at Brown University as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cook\u2019s position of leadership in the Republican club has led some to speculate that the attack might have been perpetrated for political reasons. \u201cThe Brown University shooter had a 0.8% chance of shooting someone like Ella Cook that identified as very conservative on campus,\u201d wrote one user on X<\/a>. \u201cNinty-two out of 11,500. I don\u2019t believe in coincidences after Charlie [Kirk].\u201d \u201cElla Cook was just 19 years old\u2014a Conservative, a Christian, and Vice President of the Republican Club at Brown University,\u201d wrote Benny Johnson. \u201cShe was brutally killed by a shooter in what appears to be a targeted political attack. If you still don\u2019t see what\u2019s happening, you haven\u2019t been paying attention.\u201d He then listed a number of what he described as leftist attacks during the year, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk. \u201cThe left\u2019s violent rhetoric has turned into nationwide violence. If we don\u2019t crush this threat now, we lose everything. It\u2019s only escalating. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the shooter still at large, an actual motive for the shooting remains unknown. Tributes did pour out online for Cook and Umurzakov, an Uzbekistan national who was studying to be a doctor. \u201cMy heart breaks for the families of Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, two bright young students whose lives were taken far too soon at Brown University,\u201d wrote Ted Cruz on X<\/a>. \u201cWe will not stop fighting for justice for them.\u201d Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered flags to be flown at half staff until Friday to honor Cook. \u201cAs all of Alabama wraps our arms around Ella\u2019s family in prayer, I also join in mourning her loss,\u201d wrote Ivey.<\/a> Any remaining classes and in-person activities at Brown have been suspended as the hunt for the shooter continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The investigation continues after a gunman opened fire in a classroom at the Barus and Holley engineering building in Brown University during final exams. To date, two people have been killed and nine injured. Authorities had detained a person of interest but later released him, stating the evidence was pointing in a different direction. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCommunity Mourns Ella Cook, First Named Casualty in Brown University Shooting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Investigation continues after a deadly Brown University shooting kills two students, including 19-year-old Christian Ella Cook.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/2025\/12\/community-mourns-ella-cook-first-named-casualty-in-brown-university-shooting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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