Brown University shooting suspect identity revealed — who is Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente?

A man suspected of killing two and wounding nine others at Brown University was reportedly found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said. The man who entered the Rhode Island Ivy League University’s Barus & Holley building and opened fire was identified as 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente.

What do we know about Claudio Neves Valente?

Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that Valente was a Brown student and Portuguese national who had a last known address in Florida.

Police said Valente was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"He took his own life tonight," Perez was quoted by reports as saying during a news conference alongside Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, as well as the FBI.

Perez added that the suspect was the same person who was the main focus at the start of the investigation. He said a video and description of a car broke the case, with the vehicle flagged by Flock cameras.

Valente possesed green card: US Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that the Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.

Valente's link to Brown University: Brown University President said, "Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. He was admitted to Brown's graduate school to study in the Masters of Science PhD program in physics."

"During his time with Brown, Neves-Valente was enrolled only in physics classes. The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held within the Barus & Holley classrooms and labs...," she added.

"I think it's safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities," the president said, adding that, "He has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence."

Valente's link to MIT prof: According to reports, investigators believe Valente is responsible for both the shooting at Brown and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor who was fatally shot in his Brookline home Monday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Authorities have not formally confirmed a connection between the two shootings.

Link between Brown shooting and MIT prof's killing

Two people were killed, and nine were wounded in the mass shooting on Saturday at Brown University.

The investigation had shifted on Thursday when authorities said they were looking into a connection between the Brown mass shooting and an attack two days later that killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.

The FBI previously said it knew of no links between the cases. However, The New York Post cited investigators as claiming that the suspected shooter had studied in Libson with murdered MIT nuclear science professor Nuno Lourerio, 47.

The professor was killed on Monday in his $1.4 million townhouse in upscale Brookline, Massachusetts, and cops are probing whether he is a suspect.

How the Brown investigation has unfolded

It has been nearly a week since the shooting at Brown. Frustration mounted in Providence that the person behind the attack managed to get away and that a clear image of their face hadn't emerged.

A second individual who was identified in proximity to the suspect came forward after Wednesday’s press conference and helped “blow the lid” off the case, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.

“When you crack it, you crack it. That person led us to the car, led us to the name," Neronha said.

Although Brown officials say there are 1,200 cameras on campus, the attack happened in an older part of the engineering building that has few, if any, cameras.

And investigators believe the shooter entered and left through a door that faces a residential street bordering campus, which might explain why the cameras Brown does have didn’t capture footage of the person.

What can be learned from past investigations?

In such targeted and highly public attacks, the shooters typically kill themselves or are killed or arrested by police, said Katherine Schweit, a retired FBI agent and expert on mass shootings. When they do get away, searches can take time.

In the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, it took investigators four days to catch up to the two brothers who carried it out. In a 2023 case, Army reservist Robert Card was found dead of an apparent suicide two days after he killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.

The man accused of killing conservative political figure Charlie Kirk in September turned himself in about a day and a half after the attack on Utah Valley University's campus.

And Luigi Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last year, was arrested five days later at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.

MIT mourns the loss of an esteemed professor

Loureiro, who was married, joined MIT in 2016 and was named last year to lead the school's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he worked to advance clean energy technology and other research.

The center, one of MIT's largest labs, had more than 250 people working across seven buildings when he took the helm. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.

He grew up in Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning a doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at an institute for nuclear fusion in Lisbon before joining MIT, the university said.

“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,” Dennis Whyte, an engineering professor who previously led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.

Loureiro had said he hoped his work would shape the future.

“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said when he was named to lead the plasma science lab last year. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”

(With inputs from AP)