Brown University shooting suspect identified as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente
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PROVIDENCE, RI — Authorities have identified the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and nine others injured during a finals week review session; The same man is thought to have carried out the murder of a famous nuclear scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a few days later.
His name is Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, according to Providence police.
He was found dead Thursday evening after law enforcement officers in tactical gear were seen outside a storage unit associated with him in Salem, New Hampshire, for hours, authorities announced at a news conference Thursday evening.
Neves-Valente, 48, was a Portuguese national and studied physics at Brown from fall 2000 to spring 2001, according to Brown President Christina Paxson. However, he took a leave of absence and eventually withdrew in 2003.
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In the split photo, Claudio Neves-Valente, identified as the Brown University shooter, is wearing the same jacket as a man previously identified as a person of interest in the case. (Provincial Police Department)
School records show that a man with the same name was terminated from his position as proctor at the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Portugal in 2000. Authorities said they believe he is the same person as the killer.
This is also the university attended by famed MIT nuclear physics professor Nuno Loureiro, who suffered fatal gunshot wounds Monday at his home in Massachusetts, about 50 miles from Brown.
Footage of Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente is shown on a projector screen at a news briefing in Providence, Rhode Island. The 48-year-old former student and Portuguese national has been identified as the gunman behind Saturday’s mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine. (Andrea Margolis/Fox News Digital)
Rhode Island officials said the investigation is being handled by Massachusetts officials who will speak on their behalf. United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah B. Foley later confirmed that Neves-Valente was also suspected in Loureiro’s murder.
“Tonight around 9 p.m., federal agents broke into a storage locker in Salem, New Hampshire, looking for Portuguese citizen Claudio Neves-Valente. “We believe Portuguese national Claudio Neves-Valente shot and killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts,” he told reporters at a separate news briefing. “Federal agents found Neves-Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The Brown shooting occurred during a finals week study session around 4 p.m. Saturday in the Barus and Holley Building on the east end of campus. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters that the cause of the incident remains unclear and the investigation is ongoing.
A split image showing multiple still frames from a person of interest’s security camera video taken near Brown University before and after Saturday’s school shooting. (FBI Boston)
According to Paxson, the building has long hosted physics and engineering classes.
“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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Interior view of Barus and Holley Room 166 on the Brown University campus in Providence, RI At approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, a masked man with a gun entered a review session for the ECON 0110: “Principles of Economics” course in Barus & Holley Room 166, shouted something unintelligible and opened fire. (Kenna Lee/The Brown Daily Herald)
Detectives initially questioned a suspicious man at an out-of-town hotel but eliminated him as a suspect, according to authorities.
Police spent days searching through neighborhood surveillance video, uncovering images of a person of interest — a masked, stocky figure who stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall and walked with an awkward gait.
Susan Konstantin, body language expertHe said one of the key signs is how the person of interest’s right leg bends inward while walking, with the toe pointing outward.
They then shared the images of a second person, who they said might have information about the person they were looking for, and asked for the public’s help in identifying both of them.
Six of the surviving victims were hospitalized in stable condition Thursday afternoon.
FBI Evidence Response Team members search for evidence near the Brown University campus in Providence, RI, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 (Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)
The identities of the two killed people have been revealed Ella Cook from Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia.
The surrounding community waited days for answers after the school sent students home early following the shooting; residents were nervous.
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Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
