The U.S. Department of Justice has revealed that the shooter who killed two students from Brown University and an MIT professor had been planning his attacks for several years. Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student from Portugal, was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility after allegedly carrying out two linked attacks in December 2023.
On December 13, Neves Valente entered an engineering building at Brown University, fatally shooting two students and injuring nine others. Two days later, he killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, approximately 50 miles from Providence. Authorities believe Neves Valente acted independently.
Details of the Attack and Subsequent Investigation
During a search of the storage facility where Neves Valente’s body was discovered, the FBI recovered an electronic device that contained several short videos recorded by him after the shootings. In these recordings, he expressed that he had been “planning the Brown University shooting for a long time.” While he did not provide a specific motive for targeting the university or Loureiro, he maintained that he felt no need to apologize for his actions.
In one video, Neves Valente stated, “I’m not going to apologize because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me.” He described his actions as a means of ensuring he would “not be the one who ended up suffering the most from all this.” Additionally, he referred to his execution of the murders as “a little incompetent,” yet concluded that he had achieved his goal, saying, “at least something was done.”
The storage space where Neves Valente was found had reportedly been rented for about three years.
Connections to Brown University and MIT
According to Christina Paxson, President of Brown University, Neves Valente was enrolled as a graduate student studying physics from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. Paxson confirmed that he had no current affiliation with the university. The specific classroom or the reasons for targeting the victims remain unclear, as noted by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. He stated, “There are still a lot of unknowns. We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom.”
Federal investigators have indicated that the shootings at Brown and MIT are connected through a shared academic history between Neves Valente and Professor Loureiro. The two studied together in Portugal from 1995 to 2000, attending the same program at the prestigious Instituto Superior Técnico. Loureiro graduated in 2000, the same year Neves Valente was dismissed from the university. However, authorities have yet to confirm if their shared past played any role in the attacks.
Loureiro, who joined MIT in 2016, was recently appointed to lead the university’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, one of its largest research laboratories. He was recognized for his contributions to understanding solar phenomena and advancing research into clean energy.
The investigation continues as authorities seek to piece together the motivations behind these tragic events. The Associated Press contributed to this report, which remains ongoing.
