‘Brilliant and loved’: Brown President Paxson honors shooting victims in letter

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Brown University President Christina Paxson issued a letter Tuesday morning following Saturday’s deadly mass shooting that took the lives of two university students and wounded nine others.

The letter to the Brown community centered around victims Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov who both died in the shooting at the Barus and Holley Engineering Building Saturday. 

Paxson’s letter, titled “Mourning the loss of two beloved students,” also urged the university community to keep the eight surviving hospitalized victims in their thoughts and prayers.

Of victims Cook and Umurzokov, Paxson said:

While it is impossible for words to fully convey Ella’s and Mukhammad’s impact and potential, I want to share a little bit about them as we grieve their loss and seek to honor their memories. Both were brilliant and beloved — as members of our campus community, but even more by their friends and families. Our hearts continue to be with them in their profound sorrow.

Ella Cook is described by Paxson as an accomplished competitive pianist and volunteer at her Birmingham, Alabama church.

She was vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University and a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

Paxson said of Cook:

As I learn more about the vitality she radiated, I wish so much that I had the opportunity to know her.

MukhammadAziz Umurzokov is described by President Paxson as a dual U.S. citizen from Uzbekistan who came to Brown from Virginia. 

He was captain of the Scholastic Bowl team and president of Midlothian High School’s Model United Nations chapter.

I have been moved by his current and former classmates’ descriptions of him as someone who generously shared his intelligence, humor and kindness with all those who knew him.

Of both students, Paxson said:

On behalf of our entire community at Brown, I extend the University’s deepest, most profound condolences to Ella’s and Mukhammad’s families, friends, classmates, teachers and everyone else fortunate enough to interact with these two amazing young adults, whom we lost much too soon. In particular, our hearts go out to Ella’s parents, Anna and Richard, and her siblings, Richard and Mary, and to Mukhammad’s parents, Fazliddin and Gulnoza, and his sisters, Rukhsora and Samara.

Paxson said that in the collaborative effort to honor both Cook and Umurzokov, Campus Life and UCS are planning an interfaith prayer service Wednesday.

Paxson said that both students will be memorialized following the winter break.

Hopes for recovery were given for the eight students who sustained serious injuries in the shooting and remain hospitalized:

We must also keep the other victims of the shooting in our thoughts as we hope and pray for their healthy recovery. Most remain in the hospital in stable condition…We also know that the trauma from Saturday extends far beyond those with physical wounds. As I have spoken with students, faculty and staff over the last two days, I know the weight of this tragedy bears heavily on all of us.

President Paxson closed her letter with a reminder and listing of resources available to students in need of support following the shooting.

While we remember Ella and Mukhammad and their lives, I continue to be moved and inspired by the demonstrations of caring, the grace that students, faculty and staff are showing toward each other, and the remarkable resilience of this Brown community as we experience this period of grief.

I look forward to being able to gather in community with one another as we celebrate the lives of Ella and Mukhammad in the weeks to come.