PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The intensive five-day manhunt for the individual responsible for a deadly shooting at Brown University concluded Thursday night when investigators discovered the suspect dead in a New Hampshire storage facility. Authorities identified the man as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and Brown University student.
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez confirmed in a late-night press conference that Neves-Valente was found at a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The discovery came shortly after investigators tracked a rental vehicle linked to the suspect to the facility’s parking lot. On his person, officers recovered two firearms.
The Brown University Shooting
The violence began on the afternoon of Saturday, December 13, in the Barus and Holley engineering building on Brown’s campus. Neves-Valente is believed to have entered a classroom during a final exam review session and opened fire, killing two students and wounding nine others.
The victims were identified as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Uzbekistan. The attack, described by police as “definitely targeted,” sent the Ivy League campus into a multi-day state of mourning and fear as the shooter remained at large.
A Possible Link to Brookline
As the investigation unfolded, a grim secondary lead emerged. Law enforcement officials revealed on Thursday that they are probing a “definite link” between the Brown University shooting and the murder of a prominent physicist in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, an MIT professor and director of the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was shot multiple times at his home on Monday night—just two days after the Brown massacre. Like Neves-Valente, Loureiro was a Portuguese national. While a motive has not been formally established, investigators noted that the same make and model of rental car was seen at both crime scenes.
Breakthrough in the Case
The break in the case followed the release of enhanced surveillance footage showing a “person of interest” casing the Brown campus hours before the shooting. A witness who had interacted with the man on campus contacted police, providing information that helped investigators identify Neves-Valente and track his movements to Massachusetts and finally New Hampshire.
“Tonight, our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little easier,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. “The terror that has gripped our community for the last five days is over, though the work to understand why this happened is only beginning.”
Neves-Valente, who had a last known address in Miami, Florida, was an alum and current student at Brown (GS’03). Authorities are now working with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service to process the storage unit and trace the history of the weapons used.
Sources and Links
- Associated Press: Man suspected in shooting at Brown University has been found dead in New Hampshire
- Fox News: Suspect in Brown shooting ID’d as authorities probe possible connection to MIT killing
- CBS News: Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire
- The Brown Daily Herald: Suspect in Brown shooting found dead, officials announce
- The Guardian: Police investigate links between Brown shooting and killing of MIT professor
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