Brown shooter revealed to be Portuguese national and former PhD student with links to murdered MIT professor as he’s found dead at storage facility

It turned out that the attacker who opened fire at Brown University and killed two students was a Portuguese citizen who studied at the Ivy League school more than 20 years ago.

Claudio Neves Valente, 48, attended Brown between 2000 and 2001 for a master’s degree in physics, then took a leave of absence and eventually dropped out.

It remains unclear why Neves Valente opened fire on the Rhode Island school, killing Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, 19, of Alabama, who were at a study session in the Barus and Holley Building of the Ivy League’s School of Engineering.

However, University President Christina Paxson said that she probably took classes in this building while she was attending school.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that he attended the same school in Portugal as MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro, who was fatally shot at his home in Boston.

The suspect was found dead after a six-day manhunt when authorities found a vehicle he was driving parked outside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, 80 miles from the Ivy League school.

Officers were later able to obtain a search warrant for a unit believed to have been rented by the suspect, where they found Neves Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

‘Tonight, our Providence neighbors can breathe a little easier,’ Mayor Brett Smiley said at a news conference Thursday night.

Armed police officers gathered outside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday, where they found a vehicle rented to the man suspected of opening fire at Brown University.

There was a heavy police presence outside the storage facility.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha announced that Neves Valente had two firearms on him at the time of his death.

‘He was found dead with a briefcase, two firearms and evidence in the car that matched exactly what we saw here in Providence,’ Neronha said.

Authorities had previously said they had identified the shadowy figure caught on security cameras near the scene of Saturday’s shooting, whose face they were trying to track down with the help of grainy surveillance footage.

They were able to find him after a witness came forward, authorities said Thursday night.

“That person took us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to photos of the person renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter in Providence to the bag we saw here in Providence,” Neronha said.

The big breakthrough in the case came on the sixth day of their hunt to finally catch the suspect, after authorities investigating the Brown shooting saw a call from Massachusetts police investigating Loureiro’s murder and realized a vehicle in that case matched the exact vehicle they were looking for.

It was the same make and model but had different license plates, law enforcement officials said. he told CNN.

Authorities have reportedly identified the shadowy person they suspect was responsible for the attack on Brown, whose face they are trying to track down with the help of grainy security footage.

A witness later provided a license plate to authorities investigating the Brown shooting, and authorities then investigated the vehicle and its past drivers; Police said this eventually led them to confirm that the two vehicles were identical.

Authorities now say the unidentified suspect used a number of countermeasures to avoid being tracked beyond changing license plates because he planned to evade surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology by making himself unidentifiable.

In the attack on Saturday, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (18) from Virginia and Ella Cook (19) from Alabama, who were at a study meeting at the Barus and Holley Building of the Ivy League School of Engineering, lost their lives.

He then fired 40 shots, killing two students and wounding 12 more.

Paxson admitted the building was unlocked for exams, but denied the lack of cameras hampered the investigation.

Two days later, at around 8:30 pm on Monday evening, Neves Valente fatally shot Loureiro, a married father of three, at his home in Boston, about 50 miles away.

FBI agent Ted Docks said Tuesday “there does not appear to be any connection” between the two shootings, but investigators said: WPRI Thursday could be a connection.

Police say the shooting that killed two students at Brown University may be linked to the assassination of an MIT professor two days later. (Image: Victim Ella Cook)

Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (pictured left), the second Brown University victim killed on Saturday, was referred to as an aspiring neurosurgeon and ‘ball of joy’ by his roommate.

Louise Cohen, Loureiro’s neighbor and friend, said she found his body after hearing gunshots disrupting the peace of their picturesque area of ​​Gibbs Street.

Cohen said he was lighting a menorah candle when he heard the gunshots. He ran into the corridor of the building and found Loureiro lying on his back.

The professor’s heartbroken wife was also in the foyer with another neighbor and they scrambled to call 911. Loureiro was taken to hospital but died the next day.

Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to a candlelit memorial service in his memory.

MIT recognized him as ‘a lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist’, who in 2024 became director of the university’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, an institution with more than 250 full-time researchers.

Married father of three, Nuno FG Loureiro (pictured), 47, was shot dead at his home in a leafy suburb of Boston at 8.30pm by an unidentified assailant who is still at large.

While Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, students flocked to the candlelit memorial service, as seen in the photo above.

Loureiro specialized in nuclear science, engineering and physics. According to his MIT obituary, he leaves behind “many devoted students, friends and colleagues.”

His academic career began at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, where he earned a degree in physics.

Loureiro earned a PhD in physics from Imperial College London in 2005, before starting postdoctoral work at Princeton the same year.

He also worked at the UK Atomic Energy Agency’s Culham Center for Fusion Energy between 2007 and 2009.

MIT President Sally Kornbluth acknowledged the beloved professor’s death following the Brown University shooting just two days earlier.

‘This shocking loss for our community comes at a time of disturbing violence in many other places,’ he said in a statement.

‘It’s completely natural to need comfort and support.

‘If you or anyone you know is looking for advice or just to listen, I invite you to take advantage of our many resources on campus.

‘Over time, the many communities to which Nuno belonged will create opportunities to mourn his loss and celebrate his life.’

The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail that no arrests had been made.

“This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” they said in a statement. ‘No further information is being released at this time.’

This is a breaking news with updates to follow.