Suspected Brown University Shooter Found Dead After Multi-State Manhunt

Fri Dec 19 2025 23:41:51 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former PhD student, has been identified as the suspect in last week's mass shooting at Brown University and the subsequent murder of an MIT professor. He was found dead in New Hampshire following a six-day search.

Authorities have confirmed that Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University that left two students dead, was found dead in a storage facility. The investigation revealed his connection to the murder of MIT professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro shortly after the attack. Valente had previously studied at both institutions and was utilizing methods to evade capture during the manhunt.

The suspect in last week's mass shooting at Brown University has been found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, following a six-day multi-state manhunt, police say.

The suspect was identified as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who studied at the university in Providence, Rhode Island, about 25 years ago.

Providence police chief Oscar Perez said video evidence and tips from the public led investigators to a car-rental location where they found the suspect's name and matched him to their person of interest.

Officials believe Valente killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, two days after the 13 December shooting at Brown.

Initial findings suggest Valente died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and police were unable to comment on how long he might have been inside the storage facility.

Brown University president Christina Paxson stated that Valente was enrolled at the university from autumn 2000 to spring 2001, studying for a PhD in physics, but had no current active affiliation to Brown.

Authorities confirmed that both the victim and the suspect had attended the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s. They linked the cases when the suspect's vehicle was identified via CCTV footage and a witness at Brown University.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha noted Valente was found dead with a satchel and two firearms, stating that evidence from a nearby car matched the scene in Providence.

Despite Valente's death, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks emphasized that many questions remain unanswered regarding the attacks and that approximately 500 agents were deployed to assist local authorities in the ongoing investigation.

The US has suspended its green card lottery scheme following the shooting, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated Valente should not have been allowed in the country. Valente entered the US through the diversity lottery immigrant visa programme (DV1) in 2017.

The shooting at Brown University, which occurred in the Barus & Holley engineering building, left two students dead and nine others injured. The victims were identified as Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18.

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