A frantic search for the suspect in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University ended at a New Hampshire storage facility where authorities discovered the man dead inside and revealed he also was suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez reported.
Investigators allege Neves Valente fatally shot two students and injured nine others in a Brown lecture hall last Saturday before killing MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro two days later at his home in the Boston suburbs, nearly 50 miles from Providence.
Brown University President Christina Paxson stated that Neves Valente was enrolled as a physics graduate student from the fall of 2000 to spring 2001. He has no current affiliation with the university.
Despite the tragic series of events, a crucial tip from a witness helped connect the dots for law enforcement. This witness identified Neves Valente after seeing him on security footage and reported him to the authorities. Investigators noted Neves Valente had concealed his identity by altering license plates on his rental vehicle during his evasion.
As information continues to unfold, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha noted that there are still “a lot of unknowns” regarding the motive for the shootings, stating: “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom.”
The university community mourns the tragic loss of its talented students. Victims included 19-year old Ella Cook and 18-year old MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, both active and promising individuals with bright futures ahead of them. Loureiro, a leader in the field of plasma science, was advancing research critical to understanding astronomical phenomena.
