The gunman who killed two students at Brown University was found dead in a storage unit after murdering an MIT professor as their decades-old connection was revealed.
The suspect – 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente – was revealed to be a Portuguese national who studied at the Ivy League school in Rhode Island more than 20 years ago.
He had attended Brown to pursue a masters of science in physics from 2000 to 2001, before he took a leave of absence and ultimately withdrew from the school.
It remains unclear why Neves Valente opened fire at the Rhode Island school, killing Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, of Alabama, 19.
But University President Christina Paxson said it was likely he took classes inside that building when he attended the school.
Neves Valente opened fire during a study session at the Ivy League’s School of Engineering Barus and Holley Building on December 13.
Two days later, he fatally shot MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro inside his Boston home.
Authorities revealed that gunman original target was Loureiro and the pair had attended the same school in Portugal from 1995 to 2000.
It was unclear what the shooter’s motive was or what his relationship with Loureiro had been.
The suspect was ultimately found dead after a six-day manhunt, when authorities located a vehicle he used parked outside of a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire – more than 80 miles from the Ivy League school.
Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, who attended Brown University from 2000 to 2001, has been unmasked as the gunman who opened fire at the school on December 13
Armed police officers gathered outside of a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire on Thursday, where a vehicle that was rented to Neves Valente was found abandoned
There was a heavy police presence outside of the storage facility
Officers were then able to secure a search warrant for a unit believed to have been rented by the suspect, and found Neves Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an unoccupied unit.
‘Tonight our Providence neighbors can breathe a little easier,’ Mayor Brett Smiley said at a news conference Thursday night.
Neves Valente had two firearms on him at the time of his death, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha revealed.
‘He was found dead with a satchel, with two firearms and evidence in the car that matches exactly what we see here in Providence,’ Neronha said.
Authorities had earlier said they had identified the shadowy figure caught on surveillance footage near the scene of Saturday’s shooting, whose face they had been attempting to find with the help of grainy surveillance footage.
He had also been caught on surveillance footage near the professor’s apartment, and was seen on camera entering the storage center in New Hampshire wearing the same clothes that he was pictured in in Rhode Island, according to Leah Foley, the US attorney in Massachusetts.
She said Thursday night that Neves Valente rented a hotel from November 26 through November 30, and then rented a vehicle on December 1 – which had been seen around Brown University through the day of the shooting on December 13.
Police were ultimately able to track him down after a homeless witness came forward.
Authorities had said they had identified the shadowy figure caught on surveillance footage near the scene of Saturday’s shooting, whose face they had been attempting to find with the help of grainy surveillance footage
Then, on December 16, Providence police received a tip from an anonymous source referencing a Reddit post.
‘I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving,’ it said. ‘It was parked in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke [Street] side.’
The following evening, a man only identified in the affidavit as ‘John’ told police he was the man who made the post on Reddit, noting that he first encountered the suspect inside the Barus Holley bathroom at around 1.45pm to 2pm.
He described the suspect’s clothing as ‘inappropriate and inadequate for the weather,’ wearing a baggy jacket with at least two undergarment shirt layers.
The witness also ‘described the pants and shoes as kitchen/restaurant worker style, of poor quality or would be associated with Walmart (John cast no judgment as to the quality),’ the affidavit said.
After exiting the bathroom, John said he watched the suspect unlock a gray or silver Nissan sedan, before he walked away from the vehicle.
The suspect then kept switching directions every time he saw John, who described the pattern as a ‘game of cat and mouse.’
But eventually, John said, he was able to catch up to the suspect, asking him: ‘Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?’
The suspect then reportedly responded, ‘I don’t know you from nobody’ and repeatedly asked John, ‘Why are you harassing me?’
Authorities identified the suspected Brown gunman as Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, at a news conference on Thursday
When detectives then showed John two images they obtained of the suspect’s vehicle, he replied: ‘Holy s**t, that might be it!’
Then, when he was presented with a still of video surveillance footage renting the suspect vehicle, John said ‘the stomach makes [him] think that it’s [him],’ the affidavit says.
Authorities on Thursday said John’s testimony was critical to finding Neves Valente.
‘That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence that matched the satchel that we see here in Providence,’ Neronha said.
The big break in the case then came when authorities investigating the Brown shooting saw a call-out from Massachusetts police probing Loureiro’s murder – and realized a vehicle of interest in that case was just like the one they were looking for.
It was the same make and model, but the license plates were different, law enforcement officials told CNN.
A witness then provided a license plate to authorities probing the Brown shooting, who then investigated the vehicle and its past drivers – which police say ultimately led them to confirm the two vehicles were the same.
Police now say the unidentified suspect employed a series of countermeasures to avoid being tracked beyond swapping the license plates, as he apparently planned to avoid surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology by making himself unidentifiable.
He even used a cellphone that obfuscated his location and credit cards that were not in his name, Foley said.
The Brown University shooting which killed two students and the assassination of an MIT professor two days later may be connected, police have said. (Pictured: Victim Ella Cook)
Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (pictured left), the second Brown University victim killed on Saturday, has been remembered by his roommate as an aspiring neurosurgeon and ‘ball of joy’
But officers in Massachusetts were able to determine that the Google email he had used to check into a hotel in Boston logged in from an IP address half a mile away from Loureiro’s home.
The following night, a surveillance camera also captured a blue or gray Nissan Sentra about a mile from the victim’s home.
The shooting on Saturday took the lives of Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, of Alabama, 19, who were in a study session at the Ivy League’s School of Engineering Barus and Holley Building when the gunman burst in shortly after 4pm and opened fire.
He then fired 40 rounds, killing the two students and wounding 12 more.
The building had been unlocked for exams, Paxson admitted, though she denied that a lack of cameras hindered the investigation.
Two days later at around 8.30pm on Monday, Neves Valente also fatally shot married father-of-three Loureiro inside his Boston home, nearly 50 miles away.
Loureiro’s neighbor and friend, Louise Cohen, said she discovered his body after hearing shots disturb the peace of their beautiful area on Gibbs Street.
Cohen said she was lighting a menorah candle when she heard gunshots fired. She rushed to the hallway of their building and found Loureiro lying on his back.
The professor’s heartbroken wife was also in the entry along with another neighbor, and they scrambled to dial 911. Loureiro was taken to hospital but died the next day.
Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory.
MIT paid tribute to him as, ‘a lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist’ who became the director of the college’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, an institution with more than 250 full-time researchers.
Married father-of-three Nuno F.G. Loureiro (pictured), 47, was gunned down at his home in a leafy Boston suburb at 8.30pm by an unknown shooter who is still on the loose
Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory, as shown in the photograph above
His academic career started at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, where he gained a physics degree.
Loureiro obtained a doctorate in physics from Imperial College London in 2005, before starting post-doctoral work at Princeton later that year.
He also worked at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy between 2007 and 2009.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth acknowledged that the beloved professor died in the wake of the Brown University shooting just two days before.
‘This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,’ she said in a statement.
‘It’s entirely natural to feel the need for comfort and support.
‘If you or anyone you know would like counsel or just a listening ear, I encourage you to make use of our many campus resources.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail no arrests have been made.
‘This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,’ they said in a statement. ‘No further information is being released at this time.’
source : daily mail
