The suspected gunman behind both the deadly shooting spree at Brown University and the killing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor was already dead for two days before authorities found his body inside a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said Friday.
Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown University graduate student, died Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Police discovered his body Thursday night inside a storage unit in Salem following a nearly weeklong manhunt.
Authorities identified Valente as the suspect who opened fire inside a Brown University lecture hall Saturday, killing two students and wounding nine others. The victims were Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old Uzbek American freshman.
Valente had attended Brown more than 20 years earlier as a doctoral student but dropped out in 2003 after completing three semesters, according to an affidavit.
Two days after the Brown shooting, Valente traveled roughly 50 miles and fatally shot MIT professor Nuno Loureiro inside his Brookline, Massachusetts townhouse, authorities said.
Valente and Loureiro previously studied together at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, though authorities have not publicly identified any motive connecting the killings.
“I don’t think we have any idea why now, or why Brown, or why these students, why this classroom,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha at a Thursday night press conference, according to Reuters.
Witnesses reported Valente made strange “barking” noises as he entered the Brown lecture hall and began firing, discharging more than 40 rounds, according to Neronha. Other witnesses told authorities he did not speak at all.
Authorities said Valente traveled from Florida and rented the New Hampshire storage unit in November. He also rented a gray Nissan with Florida license plates Dec. 1, which was later reportedly spotted multiple times near Brown’s campus through Dec. 12.
Valente initially arrived in August 2000 on an F-1 student to attend Brown University. He subsequently obtained U.S. lawful permanent residency in April 2017 through the Diversity Immigrant Lottery, according to the affidavit.
The Trump administration moved Thursday to suspend the green card lottery program Valente used to obtain residency.
“In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X. “At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
The investigation into the killings remains ongoing.
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