The individual behind the fatal shooting incident at Brown University has been recognized after being discovered deceased, presumably due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities have identified Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, aged 48, as the perpetrator of the assault, which resulted in the deaths of two students and injuries to nine others at the prestigious Ivy League institution in Providence, Rhode Island, over the weekend. Neves Valente, a former PhD student in physics at Brown University approximately 25 years ago, was found deceased in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. According to a senior official, he may have been deceased for some time.
Neves Valente was also sought in connection with the killing of Nuno Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who was fatally shot two days later. Following a public tip pointing to a witness account shared on Reddit, law enforcement traced a rental vehicle discovered at the scenes of both crimes.
The witness, using the pseudonym John in the affidavit, reported observing the suspect unlocking a grey Nissan sedan with Florida plates parked behind the Rhode Island Historical Society, near the Barus and Holley building at Brown University where the shooting transpired.
John recounted encountering the suspect inside the Barus and Holley building’s restroom around 1:45 pm and subsequently following him around the area, eventually leading to the grey Nissan parking spot. The suspect attempted to evade John, who caught up and questioned him about his actions, to which the suspect remained silent, accusing John of harassment.
Detectives located the vehicle shown in the footage, based on John’s Reddit post, at a car rental agency in Boston. Video evidence captured the suspect’s face, and a rental document identified him as Neves Valente. Subsequently, John confirmed the vehicle’s identity from CCTV images.
Law enforcement also corroborated that the attire observed on Neves Valente at the car rental establishment on December 1 matched the clothing worn by the suspect on the day of the Brown University shooting on December 13.
Although Neves Valente had no prior acquaintance with any of the victims at Brown University, he did know the MIT professor from their shared physics studies in Portugal, their country of origin. The suspect acquired permanent residency in the United States in 2017.
The two students who tragically lost their lives were identified as 19-year-old Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and 18-year-old Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman of Uzbek-American descent.
Rhode Island’s attorney general, Peter Neronha, noted that numerous aspects surrounding the motive remain unclear, stating, “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students, and why this classroom.”