An aspiring neurosurgeon and a student leader of Brown University's campus Republicans were in a study group preparing for an economics final, with the end of the semester in sight.
But the lives of MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook were cut short Saturday
when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building. Nine others were wounded before the gunman fled. Investigators were still searching for him Monday.As questions swirled
about the gunman's motives and how he managed to walk away after the attack, relatives and friends of Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, and Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, tried to make sense of the loss.
Umurzokov decided at a young age that he wanted to go into medicine.
He made up his mind after suffering a neurological condition that required him to undergo surgery as a child and having to wear a back brace due to scoliosis. With a double-major in biochemistry and neuroscience, he hoped to go to medical school.
“He had so many hardships in his life, and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise he made when was 7 years old,” his sister, Samira Umurzokova, told The Associated Press by phone Monday.
Umurzokov was helping a friend at an economics final review session when someone walked into the classroom and began shooting.
“It’s just crazy unfair that all of that was taken from him in a second because of someone,” Umurzokova said.
He took it upon himself to help students who just immigrated to the United States and weren’t fully acclimated to the culture and language, said Umurzokova, whose family came to the country from Uzbekistan when she, her brother and sister were very young.
She said he would be using his phone at the dinner table and when his parents told him to put it away, he would say, ”‘No, I’m helping my friend with calculus homework.’”
When he wasn’t busy with schoolwork, he would play video games with friends and hang out at a book store with family. He had plans to take his sisters to see the movie “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which comes out Friday.
“He was a thoughtful person,” Umurzokova said. “He always tried to include everyone in everything. and just always thought of other people before he thought of himself.”
Cook, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was beloved in her Birmingham church and was vice president of the Brown College Republicans.
When announcing her death Sunday to the Cathedral Church of the Advent congregation, the Rev. R. Craig Smalley described her as “an incredible grounded, faithful, bright light” who encouraged and “lifted up those around her."
“Light shines in the darkness,” he told the congregation, urging members to love and pray for her parents.
Members of the Brown College Republicans were “devastated,” the club's president, Martin Bertao, said in a post on X.
“Ella was known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates,” Bertao said.
Relatives of Cook didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment.
Only one of the nine people wounded had been released as of Sunday, Brown President Christina Paxson said. One was in critical condition and the other seven were in critical but stable condition.
Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was critically wounded. The school said her parents were with her.
“Our school community is rallying around Kendall, her classmates, and her loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days ahead,” the school said in a statement.
