The suspect in final weekend’s mass taking pictures at Brown College that left two college students lifeless and 9 others wounded was discovered lifeless Thursday — and authorities mentioned he is identical man who gunned down an MIT professor two days after the Rhode Island campus taking pictures.
Throughout a information convention Thursday, authorities recognized the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown graduate pupil, who attended the college some 25 years in the past.
Officers mentioned he took his personal life. His physique was found in a New Hampshire storage unit following an intense, multi-state manhunt that had stretched on for days.
Windfall Police Officers be part of state and federal legislation enforcement brokers looking for the Brown College shooter, in Salem, New Hampshire, U.S., December 18, 2025.
Cj Gunther/Reuters
“Tonight our Windfall neighbors can lastly breathe a bit simpler,” Mayor Brett Smiley informed reporters at at information convention Thursday night time.
Officers mentioned there is no such thing as a proof Valente was working with anybody else, describing intimately his actions main as much as and after the taking pictures, together with steps he took to hide himself from authorities.
Officers haven’t but supplied a motive for the back-to-back shootings that left residents of components of New England on edge for days.
Former Ph.D pupil who hung out in engineering constructing
Brown College President Christina Paxson mentioned Neves Valente had enrolled as a Ph.D pupil in Brown’s physics program in 2000 and attended for lower than a 12 months, earlier than happening a depart of absence after which withdrawing. She mentioned it was believed, as a physics pupil, he spent appreciable time within the Barus & Holley engineering constructing that was focused within the taking pictures on Saturday.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, has been recognized as the person fatally shot at a house in Brookline on Dec. 15, 2025.
MIT
Valente, who entered the U.S. in 2000 on a pupil visa, obtained lawful permanency in April 2017, authorities mentioned.
Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem mentioned the suspect was granted a visa via the range lottery program in 2017 and mentioned that DHS can be pausing this system instantly “to make sure no extra People are harmed,” in response to an announcement posted on X early Friday morning.
“This heinous particular person ought to by no means have been allowed in our nation. In 2017,” mentioned Noem.
He had no present affiliation with the college, in response to officers.
How 2 puzzling crimes had been linked
Authorities in Massachusetts confirmed Valente can be the suspected gunman within the demise of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, who was fatally shot on Monday night time within the lobby of his constructing in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Each males had been natives of Portugal, and U.S. Legal professional for Massachusetts Leah Foley informed reporters at a information convention late Thursday night time it is believed Valente and Loureiro studied in the identical tutorial program in Portugal within the Nineteen Nineties.
It was solely the previous day or two that the “hyperlink started to be established,” between the 2 puzzling crimes, Foley informed reporters as authorities.
Valente’s final identified tackle was in Miami, however he had rented a resort room in Boston in late November, Foley mentioned. On Dec. 1, he rented a grey Nissan Sentra, which was later noticed intermittently within the campus space over the following 12 days main as much as the taking pictures, she mentioned.
How investigators tracked suspect down
Windfall Police Chief Oscar Perez mentioned native police helped tracked down Valente thanks, partly, to surveillance video and an in depth tip a couple of car being pushed by an individual who famous odd conduct by the suspect.
Manuel Neves Valente, 48, seen inside a automotive rental facility.
New Hampshire legal professional normal
“I’m being lifeless severe. Police have to look into a gray Nissan with Florida plates, probably a rental,” the tipster informed police, in response to a grievance launched by Rhode Island authorities. “That was the automotive he was driving.”
The tip and surveillance video, together with the usage of license-plate reader know-how led investigators to a automotive rental company in Massachusetts. There, police obtained a duplicate of the rental settlement with the suspect’s title, in addition to video of the suspect that matched the movies of the individual of curiosity seen on the Brown College campus on the day of the taking pictures.
An FBI Proof Response Crew searches the grounds outdoors the positioning of the Brown College taking pictures, because the manhunt continues for the gunman, in Windfall, Rhode Island, December 15, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
What occurred at New Hampshire storage facility
Authorities mentioned that discovery finally led them to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on the border with Massachusetts, the place Valente had rented a unit. Foley, the U.S. legal professional, mentioned investigators imagine Valente had fled to the storage facility shortly after the taking pictures of the MIT professor on Monday night time.
By Thursday night time, investigators had been closing in on the storage facility, acquiring a search warrant, which FBI SWAT groups executed shortly earlier than 9 p.m.
Authorities mentioned Valente’s physique was present in a storage unit subsequent to the one he had rented. He was discovered with a satchel containing two firearms.
The 2 Brown college students who had been killed had been recognized as 19-year-old Ella Prepare dinner and 18-year-old MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. They had been each fatally struck by gunfire when the shooter burst into the first-floor auditorium the place a overview session for an economics course was going down.
The constructing was unlocked for exams being held within the constructing on the time of the taking pictures, the college president mentioned.
America flag flies at half-staff as an indication of mourning for the sufferer’s of Saturday’s taking pictures, on the campus of Brown College, Dec. 15, 2025, in Windfall, R.I.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
Authorities additionally mentioned Thursday somebody confronted the gunman in a toilet within the constructing and mentioned he felt like he did not belong there.
