Authorities announced Thursday night that the man believed to have carried out two deadly shootings in Rhode Island and Massachusetts over the past week was found dead by suicide in New Hampshire, bringing an end to a six-day regional manhunt that had left two universities and multiple law enforcement agencies on alert.
The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, had been identified as the primary person of interest in a weekend shooting at Brown University, where two students were killed and nine others wounded. Investigators also linked him to the killing of MIT professor Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro, 47, who was shot in his home Monday evening.
Valente was discovered in a New Hampshire storage facility with two firearms. Investigators said evidence recovered from his car “matches exactly what we see” at the crime scene in Providence.
A Former Brown Student With No Current Affiliation
Authorities confirmed that Valente, a Portuguese national, had a prior connection to Brown University dating back more than 20 years.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said Valente was enrolled as a physics Ph.D. student from fall 2000 to spring 2001 and took all of his courses in the Barus and Holley Building—the same lecture hall complex targeted in Saturday’s attack. Paxson noted that Valente had no affiliation with the school at the time of the shooting.
Law enforcement officials said Valente had been their “focus” from early in the investigation. Providence Police Chief Colonel Oscar Perez explained that a suspicious video first provided officers with a description of a vehicle. A tip then corroborated the information, allowing police to trace the car to a Massachusetts rental service. There, investigators reviewed security footage and retrieved Valente’s rental records, which included his full name.
Linking the Two Shootings
Federal and state authorities confirmed Thursday that they believe Valente is also responsible for the killing of MIT professor Loureiro. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said investigators identified surveillance video of Valente within a half-mile of the professor’s home and determined that he drove the same rented vehicle from Boston to Brown and back to Boston. MIT and Brown are roughly 60 miles apart.
Officials added that Valente and Loureiro are believed to have attended the same school in Lisbon, though the nature of their relationship remains unclear.
Earlier in the week, FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks had said authorities did not believe the two shootings were connected. However, on Thursday reports emerged that New England investigators were examining the possibility of a link — a connection that officials later confirmed.
Motive Still Unclear
Despite the rapid investigative developments, authorities acknowledge that they still lack a motive.
“We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
Officials unsealed a criminal complaint against Valente on Thursday, only hours before his body was discovered.
The Brown University Shooting
The violence began Saturday during finals week at Brown University, when a masked gunman entered a lecture hall carrying a rifle. Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama and vice president of Brown’s College Republicans chapter, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Uzbekistan studying biochemistry and neuroscience, were fatally shot.
Nine others were wounded. As of Thursday, six remained hospitalized in stable condition.
Investigators said the shooter escaped into surrounding streets moments after the attack. Surveillance cameras captured some footage, but Neronha said that “fewer, if any” cameras were installed in the specific part of the lecture hall where the shooting occurred, limiting early leads.
The attack forced Brown University to cancel classes and exams and triggered an intensive manhunt across Rhode Island and neighboring states.
A Week-Long Search Ends
Before Valente was identified, police briefly detained another man in his 20s based on an early tip, but he was released after evidence showed no connection to the shootings.
On Wednesday, as the search stretched into its fifth day, Perez acknowledged the scope of uncertainty facing investigators. “He could be anywhere,” he said. “We still don’t know who the person is or where he is.”
The discovery of Valente’s body Thursday evening ended that uncertainty, though many questions remain — most notably, why the shootings occurred at all.
%20(1).jpg)
.png)
