'He truly changed my life': Classmate recalls Brown University student killed in mass shooting
They met this past spring on the first day of their freshman year at Brown University, and Vanessa Finder said she and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov became fast friends, bonding over a mutual interest in neuroscience.
Finder told ABC News she lost the classmate who "truly changed my life" when a gunman opened fire in a campus lecture hall on Saturday. The 18-year-old Umurzokov and another student were killed, and nine others were injured. The gunman is still on the run.
According to Finder, Umurzokov, who lived in a dorm room next door to her, wasn't enrolled in the economics review session that was targeted by the gunman, but decided to accompany a friend to the lecture.
She said that in the last text message she got from Umurzokov, he included a photo of the lecture hall and joked, "I got dragged to the econ session."
Finder was at home in Massachusetts studying for finals, she said, when she began getting urgent alerts on her phone from school emergency services, advising students on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus to shelter in place due to an active shooter near the Barus & Holley Engineering building.
"Then I realized, wait, he was in the classroom where the incident happened," Finder said of Umurzokov. "Then I found out more information, that the people he's really close to were shot, and that's when I became really concerned about him."
Finder recalled that she spent hours Saturday texting Umurzokov multiple times, asking, "Hey, are you OK?" When he didn't respond, she said she contacted a mutual friend who was in contact with Umurzokov's sister.
"And at 3 a.m., I heard from her that the sister told her that he, unfortunately, passed away," she said.
Umurzokov, who was from Uzbekistan, was killed in the attack along with fellow student Ella Cook, who was described by her Alabama church pastor as "incredibly grounded and generous and faithful" and a "bright light."
"Everyone feels like it's unfair. I've been texting friends, and we've all been saying, 'Why him?' Like, 'Why Brown? Why did this happen?'" Finder said.
Smiling at the thought of Umurzokov, she described him as an "insanely smart" student with a "dry sarcastic humor."
"He was a very caring and loyal friend. He was a compassionate person," Finder said. "He had huge dreams to become a neurosurgeon."
She said she met Umurzokov on the first day of this semester when students on her dormitory floor went out for a group lunch.
"When I spoke to him, I found out he was also neurosience, and we just got along really well from the first time that we spoke. And from there, we had similar classes, and we would just study together," Finder said. "We got really, really, really close from studying together."
She said she'll miss Umurzokov's jokes and his hearty laugh.
"Whenever he would make like a tiny mistake, either with work or he would drop something, he would ask me, 'Would you trust me as your neurosurgeon?'" Finder said. "That's a perfect example of him just bringing humor into his quirks."
She added, "He was the kind of person who would laugh about his quirks, and he taught me that it's OK to make fun of yourself. And, honestly, I think it's kind of made me much happier as a person. I've grown so much just from meeting him."
Finder recalled that Umurzokov was also a good listener.
"He has done so much for me and whenever I had any conflicts in my life, like he would sit down with me and give me such genuine advice, such heartfelt advice," Finder said. "He truly has changed my life."
Looking ahead to returning to campus for the next semester, Finder said life at the Ivy League school will not be the same without Umurzokov.
"I mean, he was also my next-door neighbor. Like, I would have to pass his door to get to my room every single day. And often he would just knock on my door and ask, like, 'Do you want to get food?'" Finder said. "And just to feel this absence, it's not going to be the same."
