The suspect in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University has been found dead, authorities said Thursday, as investigators confirmed he was also responsible for the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days later.
Officials identified the gunman as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48 year old Portuguese national and former Brown University student. Law enforcement said Valente died by suicide and acted alone. His motive remains unknown.
The announcement brings a major development in an investigation that began after a deadly attack inside a Brown lecture hall during final exams that left two students dead and at least eight others injured.
At a joint news conference, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Valente attended Brown more than two decades ago as a doctoral student in physics and was familiar with the building where the shooting occurred.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley in Boston confirmed Valente’s death, saying investigators were confident he carried out the Brown University shooting and later killed MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at the professor’s home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Foley said prosecutors have substantial evidence tying Valente to the MIT killing and will release more information once investigators better understand the motive.
Authorities said Valente’s body was discovered inside a storage unit he had rented in Salem, New Hampshire, about 20 miles north of Boston. FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said multiple law enforcement agencies converged on the location Thursday night after tracing Valente’s movements.
Perez said the breakthrough came after a campus tip from someone who encountered Valente inside a bathroom at Brown. That tip led police to a rental car Valente had obtained in Massachusetts.
Investigators recovered surveillance footage showing Valente wearing clothing that matched images captured during the Brown shooting. His name was also found on the rental agreement, officials said.
Earlier this week, authorities said they did not see a connection between the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor. On Thursday, officials reversed that assessment.
Foley said investigators are now certain Valente shot and killed Loureiro, a nuclear science and engineering professor, on Monday. One law enforcement official said Valente and Loureiro are believed to have attended the same university in Lisbon, though the significance of that link remains unclear.
Attorney General Neronha said investigators still do not know why Valente carried out the attacks.
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“I do not think we have any idea why now, or why Brown, or why these students, or why this classroom,” Neronha said. “That is really unknown to us.”
Two Brown students were killed in Saturday’s shooting, which occurred inside the Barus and Holley engineering building. The campus attack shocked the university community and prompted a large scale manhunt across several states.
While the discovery of the suspect’s death brings closure to the search, officials said the investigation remains active as authorities work to establish motive and reconstruct Valente’s final movements.
