Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov has been named as one of two students killed after a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at an Ivy League university in the US last Saturday.
Students Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed on Saturday, December 13, when a man dressed in black opened fire at a lecture hall at the prestigious Brown University in Rhode Island, US. A further nine students were injured in the attack.
The suspect has not yet been identified or apprehended. Authorities said they arrested a “person of interest” on Sunday following the shooting, but no charges have been announced.
On Monday, investigators released several short video clips of the alleged suspect. The footage showed a person dressed entirely in black walking along a residential street moments before the attack, though few identifiable details were visible.
Authorities later confirmed that one of the victims was 18-year-old Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. According to Jonathan Henick, the US Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Umurzokov was an Uzbek national.
Further reports in several media outlets said Umurzokov was a naturalised US citizen who was born in Uzbekistan.
Family and officials mourn Umurzokov
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In a statement, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “The loss of innocent lives as a result of this tragedy is a heavy loss for all of us.”
Ambassador Henick also said he was “deeply saddened by reports of the tragic death.”
“We extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Umurzokov’s family, friends, and fellow students, and mourn the loss of his bright future,” he said.
Umurzokov’s aunt, Karina Gabit, told NBC News that the first-year undergraduate student was an aspiring neurosurgeon who was “very kind, smart, and attended talented and gifted schools”.
Brown University is one of the top universities in the US and an elite Ivy League institution, known for its notoriously low acceptance rates.
Umurzokov was studying biochemistry and neuroscience as a double major, with his ambition to become a neurosurgeon rooted in a desire to help others.
Events of the shooting
According to The Washington Post, Umurzokov’s two sisters watched news coverage of the Brown University shooting on Saturday afternoon from their home in Midlothian, Virginia, fearing that their brother could have been among the victims.
After news of the shooting broke, Umurzokov failed to respond to calls or messages from friends and family.
The shooting took place during an economics study session, a class Umurzokov had no academic reason to attend, given his biochemistry and neuroscience studies.
However, his sisters later discovered through information shared on Instagram that Umurzokov had been in the classroom, sitting at the front, having attended simply to be with some of his friends.
A GoFundMe campaign set up in his name described him as someone who “always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation, and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew.”
“Our family is incredibly devastated by this loss,” the fundraiser added.
“Any donations will help significantly with any expenses my family will have to face, and the rest of the funds will be donated to charity in his name… Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.”
Double standards over victims
Members of the Trump administration publicly mourned the death of Ella Cook, 19, highlighting her involvement as a parishioner at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama.
Cook was also vice president of the College Republicans at Brown University, an umbrella youth organisation for students who support the Republican Party.
She was described by officials as “bold, brave, and kind-hearted”.
However, pushback on X from users claiming that the second victim — a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan — was not being highlighted or mourned to the same extent as Cook, led members of the Trump administration to post about him as well, referring to him as the “second victim”.
US Vice President JD Vance wrote: “It looks like the second victim in the Brown shooting has been identified, a brilliant young man who dreamed of being a surgeon. May God rest the soul of Muhammad Aziz Umurzakov.”
The attack at Brown University brings the number of mass shootings in the US to 389 in 2025 alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The organisation defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people are killed or injured, excluding the attacker.
