Who was Ella Cook? First victim killed in the Brown University shooting identified as the vice president of Brown Republicans

On December 13, a tragic mass shooting broke out at Brown University in Rhode Island, killing two students and injuring nine people. On Sunday, the first victim to be killed in the shooting was identified as Ella Cook. According to reports, Cook was identified by an Alabama parish that she used to attend.

While sharing the news at the Cathedral Church of the Advent on Sunday, Cook's church leader, Craig Smalley, said,

"Some of you have heard of the tragedy yesterday of Brown University, the shooting, of a number of people. And, tragically, one of our parishioners, Ella Cook, was, one of those who was killed yesterday."

She was described as being an "incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light." Laura Loomer later took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on December 14, and reacted to Ella Cook being a victim of the shooting. In her tweet, Laura called the incident "disgusting" and said,

"Very disturbing. One of the students shot and killed at Brown University was Ella Cook, the vice president of Brown Republicans."

Meanwhile, according to Ella Cook's LinkedIn profile, she started attending Brown University back in the year 2024 and was set to graduate in 2028. Speaking of the shooting, police said that the killer fled the campus. However, a person of interest was detained before being released on Sunday.

Brown University student Ella Cook has been described as a staunch conservative

Former Brown University student Alex Shieh, who claimed to be a friend of Ella Cook, described her as a staunch conservative. In a now-removed tweet, Sheih shared a screengrab of their last conversation and wrote,

"Being a conservative at Brown isn't always the easiest, but Ella was never afraid to share her beliefs on an overwhelmingly liberal campus and support others in doing so."

FOX News' Laura Ingraham further shared an update obtained from Ella's friends. According to Ingraham,

"From friends who know Ella's family—a brilliant, hard-working young woman studying at Brown U. Such a horrific end to this young life. Please pray for all the victims of this senseless violence."

The tweet that Laura Loomer shared was in response to another post that had a screenshot of a conversation. The conversation was claimed to be about Ella Cook. In the chat, a user said that the police called Ella's family and told them that the attack was targeted. The person also wrote that Ella was a part of one of the few Republican groups on the campus.

According to the conversation, she was studying for the exams along with her conservative friends. The gunman allegedly looked for her before shooting her in the face. Speaking of the ongoing investigation, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said that he didn't think the arrested person was the one who was seen in the CCTV footage that captured the suspect. 

The parish has confirmed that Ella Cook left behind her parents and a sibling. The mass shooting on Saturday further impacted the entire community as well as Brown University students.