Providence, R.I. — After six tense days that gripped New England, law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday night that the man believed to have carried out a deadly mass shooting at Brown University and linked to the fatal shooting of a respected MIT professor was found dead from a self‑inflicted gunshot wound in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. The suspect was identified as 48‑year‑old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown University graduate student.
The manhunt began after a Saturday afternoon attack on the Brown campus in Providence, Rhode Island, where a gunman opened fire inside a crowded classroom during finals week, killing two students and wounding nine others. Authorities quickly released images from surveillance footage and sought the public’s help in identifying the person seen entering the Barus and Holley building just before the shooting.
As fear and heartbreak deepened across the campus and in the city, investigators expanded their efforts, linking the case to another tragedy that unfolded two days later: the fatal shooting of MIT physics professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his Brookline, Massachusetts home. Law enforcement officials said evidence — including a car believed to have been rented by the suspect — connected the two investigations.
Officials from the FBI, Rhode Island State Police, and local agencies converged on a storage unit in Salem Thursday night, where the suspect’s body was discovered with two firearms and a satchel. Authorities said Valente had taken his own life, effectively ending the five‑state manhunt that followed the Brown attack.
Valente’s ties to Brown ran deep: records show he was enrolled in the university’s physics graduate program from 2000 to 2001 before withdrawing decades ago. He had no active affiliation with the school at the time of the shooting, and his last known residence was in Miami, Florida. Officials are still probing what motivated the attack, and whether there was any connection between Valente and Professor Loureiro beyond the tragic overlap of both victims’ ties to academic physics.
The Brown community, still shaken, mourned the loss of students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, the two lives cut short in the classroom. Nine others remain hospitalized with injuries ranging from serious to stable. In response to the violence and grief, Brown University canceled final exams and sent students home early for the winter break.
As the region reflects on this week’s sorrow, law enforcement has promised a continued investigation into the motive, and community leaders have urged compassion and unity in the days ahead. The closure of the manhunt brings some relief, but many questions about why it happened at all remain unanswered.
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