Authorities confirm Brown University shooting suspect died by suicide
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Authorities confirmed Friday that the suspect behind the fatal shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor died by suicide days before he was found dead in a New Hampshire warehouse; Investigators continue to investigate the motive behind the attacks.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has performed an autopsy on the body of 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, identified as a suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University and the subsequent killing of an MIT professor, New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said Friday.
In the examination, it was confirmed that Neves Valente died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death was determined to be suicide.
Authorities estimate he died on Tuesday, December 16, based on forensic findings and investigative information available to date. Neves Valente was found dead two days later on Thursday evening at a storage facility in New Hampshire.
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Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this photo showing the man identified in the deadly shootings at both Brown University in Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. (Ministry of Justice)
Neves Valente was publicly identified by Providence police as the suspect in the Dec. 13 shooting at Brown University during a finals week study session that resulted in the deaths of two students. Nine people were injured in the Barus & Holley Engineering Building.
Authorities later confirmed that he was also a suspect in the December 15 shooting death of MIT nuclear science professor Nuno FG Loureiro, who was found shot to death in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Federal investigators also seized two 9mm handguns near Neves Valente’s body in New Hampshire, according to the Boston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Working through the Connecticut State Police forensic laboratory, the ATF and FBI positively matched one of the guns to the gun used in the Brown shooting. The second gun matched the one in Loureiro’s killing, authorities said.
Neves Valente was a Portuguese citizen and studied physics from fall 2000 to spring 2001, withdrawing from the program in 2003, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson. He had no recent involvement with the university at the time of the campus shooting.
“I think it’s safe to assume that this man spent a lot of time in this building as a student, a doctoral student in physics, for classes and other activities,” Paxson said. “He has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence.”
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A police vehicle at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, following a shooting at the university on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Neves Valente was found dead Thursday evening after law enforcement infiltrated a warehouse where he was believed to be hiding in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities said he acted alone in both attacks.
During the investigation, law enforcement investigated neighborhood surveillance video, released images of a person of interest, and was initially interrogated, but later eliminated another person before identifying Neves Valente as the suspect.
The two Brown students killed were Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia. The few surviving victims were hospitalized in stable condition.
Split image showing Brown University victims Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, as well as slain MIT professor Nuno Loureiro. (Instagram/elinacoutlakis/GoFundMe/Jake Belcher for MIT)
Sources told Fox News that investigators continue to examine Neves Valente’s recent movements, including tracking his credit card transactions in the days before the attacks. According to sources, FBI agents are also in Florida, where he last lived.
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Authorities have not found any writings or documents that clearly show the reason for the shooting.
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crimes including missing persons, murders and immigration crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
