Brown University File photo
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown physics graduate student who briefly attended the Providence institution 25 years ago, took his own life as law enforcement closed in on his location, authorities said. Investigators also linked Valente to the shooting death of an MIT professor two days after the Brown campus attack.
The deceased students were identified as Ella Cook, 19, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18. Nine other students were wounded when Valente opened fire in a first-floor auditorium of the Barus & Holley engineering building on December 14, where students had gathered for an economics course review session ahead of final exams.
"Tonight our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little easier," Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters at a Thursday evening news conference announcing Valente's death.
Brown University President Dr. Christina Paxson said Valente had enrolled as a Ph.D. student in the university's physics program in 2000 but attended for less than a year before taking a leave of absence and withdrawing. As a physics student, he likely spent considerable time in the engineering building that became the site of the tragedy, Paxson noted.
The case took an unexpected turn when Massachusetts authorities connected Valente to the December 15 shooting death of Dr. Nuno F.G. Loureiro, an MIT professor who was killed in the foyer of his Brookline apartment building. Both Valente and Loureiro were Portuguese natives who studied in the same academic program in Portugal during the 1990s, according to U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley.
"The link began to be established" between the two crimes only within the past day or two, Foley said.
Investigators tracked Valente through surveillance footage, license-plate reader technology, and a crucial tip from a witness who noticed suspicious behavior and alerted police to a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates. That tip led investigators to a Massachusetts car rental agency, where they obtained Valente's rental agreement and video footage matching surveillance images from Brown's campus.
Valente, whose last known address was in Miami, had rented a Boston hotel room in late November and obtained the vehicle on December 1. The car was observed intermittently near Brown's campus over the subsequent 12 days leading up to the shooting, Foley said.
The investigation culminated Thursday evening at a Salem, New Hampshire storage facility near the Massachusetts border. FBI SWAT teams executed a search warrant shortly before 9 p.m. and found Valente's body in a unit adjacent to one he had rented. He was discovered with a satchel containing two firearms.
Authorities said they found no evidence Valente was working with accomplices and noted he had taken deliberate steps to conceal himself from law enforcement. They have not yet disclosed a motive for either shooting.
The Brown shooting occurred during finals week when the engineering building was unlocked to accommodate students taking examinations. According to authorities, someone confronted Valente in a building bathroom before the shooting, questioning whether he belonged there.
Valente entered the United States in 2000 on a student visa and obtained lawful permanent residency in April 2017, authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced early Friday that her department would immediately pause the diversity visa lottery program through which Valente received his visa, stating that the program needed review "to ensure no more Americans are harmed."
The tragedy adds Brown to the growing list of colleges and universities that have experienced fatal campus shootings, reigniting debates about campus security measures, mental health resources, and threat assessment protocols at institutions of higher education.
