State Rep. O’Brien Prefiles Bill To Arm Public College Police Officers

PROVIDENCE, RI — State Rep. William W. O’Brien referenced the Brown University mass shooting in prefiling a bill to arm public college police officers.

"The unthinkable has come to Rhode Island and this horrific incident at Brown should serve as a wake-up call to our public colleges who refuse to arm their campus police officers," O'Brien, D-North Providence, said in a media release.

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O'Brien also He also pointed to a recent Rhode Island State Police assessment of an armed assailant response at the Community College of Rhode Island earlier this year, according to the release.

Related: Feds To Review Brown University For Possible Campus Safety Act Violations: DOE

"The State Police report about the incident at CCRI makes it clear that to protect students, faculty and staff, police officers at CCRI and RIC must be properly equipped and armed to deal with potential life-threatening situations," O'Brien said. "The sad reality is that the campuses of CCRI and RIC are not prepared for these types of incidents and attacks due to their presidents’ refusal to arm their campus police."

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A gunman fired at least 44 shots in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, killing two and wounding eight others the afternoon of Dec. 13. The Providence police and the FBI identified the shooter as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student and Portuguese national living in Miami.

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Neves Valente was also linked to the shooting death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro, who was found mortally wounded in his Brookline home Dec. 15, with the feds calling the connection a certainty.

Related: Brown University Suspected Mass Shooter Found Dead By Suicide In NH Storage Unit

Five days after the Brown University mass shooting, Neves Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit.

Related: Brown University Person Of Interest Cased Building Hours Before Mass Shooting: Chief