Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The suspect in the Brown University shooting that killed two people on Dec. 13 was found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire.
During a press conference Mayor Brett Smiley and Mayor Oscar Perez said that the suspect was identified as 48-year-old Claudio Nevez Valente, a Brown student and Portuguese national whose last known address was in Miami.
The FBI and ATF identified Valente as the killer of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro when they announced a press conference on his death, and a spokesperson said they believed that the two attended a school in Lisbon, Portugal together some time between 1995 and 2000.
He was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Attorney General Peter Neronha said that records were found that the car Valente used was rented in Boston and that he rented the storage unit.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said that the suspect was enrolled at the university for a PhD program in physics from 2000 to 2001.
He took a leave of absence in 2001 and then withdrew in 2003.
Paxson added that he likely spent a large amount of time in the building where the shooting took place for classes.
United States Attorney Leah Foley said that Valente’s car was seen near Brown multiple times between Dec. 1 and the shooting.
He then killed Loureiro in his Brookline home on Dec. 15.
Foley said that investigators linked the two crimes via financial investigations into hotel rooms and the car rental, as well as surveillance video taken from both crime scenes.
Smiley’s office said that an arrest warrant for Valente was issued for two counts of murder and 23 felony counts of assault and felony firearms offenses.
The office added that Valente arrived in the United States in August 2000 as an F-1 student at Brown University and subsequently obtained U.S. lawful permanent residency in April 2017.
Neronha said that the second person who was in proximity to the suspect helped “blow the case open.”
Perez said that the person had a conversation with a suspect before the shooting.
Neronha also said that investigation into motive for the shooting was still ongoing.
