Brown Shooting Suspect Linked to Murder of MIT Professor
Authorities have identified the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University as the same man believed to be responsible for the killing of a prominent nuclear scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology days later.
Brown Shooting Suspect Identified as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente
Providence police named the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, 48. Officials announced Thursday evening that he was found dead after law enforcement officers surrounded a storage unit linked to him in Salem, New Hampshire, for several hours. Authorities said Neves-Valente died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Neves-Valente was a Portuguese national and a former Brown University student. According to Brown President Christina Paxson, he studied physics at the university from fall 2000 through spring 2001 before taking a leave of absence and formally withdrawing in 2003. He had no current affiliation with the university.
Records also show that a man with the same name was dismissed from a monitoring position at Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal in 2000. Investigators believe this individual is the same person responsible for the Brown shooting.
Instituto Superior Técnico is also the alma mater of Nuno Loureiro, a well-known MIT nuclear physics professor who was fatally shot Monday at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts — roughly 50 miles from Brown. Massachusetts authorities later confirmed that Neves-Valente was suspected in Loureiro’s killing as well.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said federal agents breached a storage locker in Salem around 9 p.m. Thursday while searching for Neves-Valente. Inside, they discovered his body.
Shooting Occurred Saturday Leaving Two Killed and Nine Injured
The Brown University shooting occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday during a finals week study session inside the Barus and Holley Building on the eastern edge of campus. The gunman entered a review session, shouted something witnesses could not clearly make out, and opened fire. Two students were killed and nine others were injured.
The victims who died were identified as Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia. As of Thursday afternoon, six of the wounded remained hospitalized in stable condition.
Investigators said the building targeted in the attack has long housed physics and engineering classes. Paxson noted that Neves-Valente would have spent significant time there during his studies but emphasized that he had no active presence on campus in recent years.
In the days following the shooting, police canvassed surrounding neighborhoods for surveillance footage. Images showed a masked individual of stocky build, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, walking with an unusual gait. Authorities later released images of a second individual they believed might have information related to the suspect and asked for the public’s help identifying both.
Detectives initially questioned a person of interest at a hotel outside Providence but later ruled that individual out.
A motive for the attack remains unclear, and the investigation is ongoing, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said. The campus community spent days awaiting answers as Brown University sent students home early in the aftermath of the shooting, leaving residents shaken and on edge.
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