Providence hires firm to complete review of Brown shooting response

Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald on Feb 19, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The city of Providence hired a firm to conduct an independent review of its response to a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and kicked off a five day manhunt for the killer.

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) will conduct the review which Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said will be made public after its completion.

“The Providence community deserves an independent, third-party review to carefully assess the response to this tragic incident,” Smiley said in a statement Thursday. “This process is focused on accountability and learning — identifying what worked well and where we must improve in training, tools, tactics, and technology.”

According to a contract with PERF provided by the city, the review will cost $95,000 and unfold in three phases over about four months.

Smiley initially told the press they’d undergo a review after they released heavy redacted body camera footage and dispatch recordings from the shooting following a series of local and nation media’s public records requests.

The footage showed the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 13 killings when first responders arrived at the scene to treat victims and look for a shooter they believed could still be inside or nearby.

Claudio Neves-Valente, the person authorities have said is responsible for the Brown shooting and the murder of MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro, was eventually found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage unit five days later.

The shooting at Brown was the first of two mass shootings to happen in Rhode Island over the last two months. On Monday, a man shot and killed his ex-wife and son at a hockey game in Pawtucket. He also injured three others, who are all in critical condition, before being subdued by bystanders and then turning a second firearm he’d brought into the venue on himself.

“We are undertaking this review with seriousness and a clear sense of responsibility,” Smiley said. “At a time when our neighbors in Pawtucket are grieving and our own community continues to heal, we are reminded that our responsibility is not only to understand what happened, but to act on what we learn.”

________