Saturday’s shooting at Brown University left two students dead and eight others wounded during finals week. Still, there’s a detail from the scene that Providence authorities won’t confirm, and the mainstream media seems happy to ignore it altogether.
The attack unfolded around 4:30 p.m. in an engineering building where students were preparing for economics exams. According to multiple witnesses who were feet from the gunfire, the masked shooter shouted something before opening fire. Social media has been flooded with reports that the gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar.”
That’s not a minor detail.
If true, it would fundamentally change the narrative around the shooting, transforming it from a random act of campus violence into something authorities might need to treat as terrorism.
But that detail is being covered up.
On Monday, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez Jr. repeatedly declined to confirm whether the shooter shouted anything before opening fire, even as reporters pressed him repeatedly about reports circulating outside the official briefings. During the press conference, a reporter asked point-blank whether the suspect “yelled something right before his shot came in.”
Perez shut that line of inquiry down immediately, responding, “That’s part of the investigation,” he said.
The reporter explained the relevance of the question, noting that in past cases, verbal clues helped identify suspects. “It’s possible a friend or family member might recognize if the person said something that was significant,” the reporter said.
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But Perez stuck to the same script, emphasizing evidence collection and future disclosures. “Investigations will bring us to evidence that we need to collect in order to be able to prosecute,” he said, adding, “We’re going to continue to collect evidence, and if it leads us to something to that nature, that’s going to be extremely helpful for us to identify somebody, we’ll be the first ones to put it out.”
A second reporter followed up more directly, citing public reports and asking again whether the suspect yelled something when he entered the classroom. Perez clearly didn’t want to answer the question and shifted to a boilerplate declaration of sympathy before again declining to answer.
“Listen, like my heart goes out to the victims. It goes out to the families,” he said, praising survivors for cooperation he described as “extremely helpful.” When reporters asked again, “Did he yell though?” Perez acknowledged that investigators had taken witness statements while stopping short of confirmation. “That’s something that we’re investigating,” he said. “We took statements, and we have to confirm that.”
That’s when Providence Mayor Brett Smiley stepped in to shut down the presser.
Holy crap.
Providence officials still won’t say what the Brown University gunman shouted before attacking. pic.twitter.com/VfXoGOGk3G
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 15, 2025
The refusal to answer repeated, direct questions is a true red flag here, and it’s a serious problem for the case and an insult to the two victims who lost their lives.
The victims included 19-year-old Ella Cook, a sophomore from Birmingham, Ala., who served as vice president of the Brown College Republicans, and 18-year-old Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a recent high school graduate from Midlothian, Va., who aspired to become a neurosurgeon. They deserve justice, yet Providence officials refuse to confirm a key detail in the case because it undermines the preferred narrative.
A person of interest had already been detained and later released after several hours, and I can’t help but wonder if confirming that the shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar” would help ensure the wrong person doesn’t end up detained in the future. But also, the lack of transparency here could seriously hinder efforts to apprehend the suspect.
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