Who was Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente? Brown University shooting suspect found dead by suicide

Who was Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente?

A major development has emerged in the Brown University shooting as authorities confirmed that the suspected gunman, Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials announced Thursday (December 18, 2025).

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez identified the suspect as a 48-year-old Portuguese national. “He took his own life tonight,” Perez said, according to AFP. The Brown University shooting, which occurred on December 13, left two students dead and wounded at least eight others inside a classroom building.

Who was Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente?

Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente was a Portuguese national and former graduate student at Brown University. His body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, about 20 miles north of Boston, Reuters reported. Authorities believe Valente acted alone.

Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed that Valente was enrolled in the university’s Ph.D. physics program from fall 2000 to spring 2001 but had no current affiliation with the school. He had spent considerable time in the Barus & Holley engineering building, the site targeted in the recent shooting.

Valente entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2000 and obtained permanent residency in April 2017. His last known address was in Miami, though he had rented a hotel room in Boston in late November 2025. Investigators tracked his movements using surveillance video and a tip regarding a gray Nissan Sentra he had been driving.

Link to the MIT professor’s killing

Authorities are investigating possible connections between the Brown University shooting and the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, who was shot at his Brookline, Massachusetts, home on Monday, about 80 km from Providence. Both Valente and Loureiro were Portuguese nationals and reportedly studied in the same academic program in Portugal in the 1990s.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley stated that the link between the two cases began to emerge only in the past few days. Valente fled to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, shortly after the MIT professor’s death, where his body and a satchel containing two firearms were later found by FBI SWAT teams.

Victims at Brown University

The two students killed at Brown University were 19-year-old Ella Cook and 18-year-old MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. They were shot while attending an economics review session in a first-floor auditorium.

Police have released images and video of Valente, as well as photos of another individual seen near the campus, seeking information from the public. Providence Police Chief Perez emphasized the suspect “could be anywhere” before his identification and death.

Authorities continue to investigate the motive behind the shootings and whether the incidents were connected.