NEW ENGLAND — The suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor was found dead Thursday night inside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.
Authorities identified the suspect as 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown University student who attended the school from 2000 to 2001.
His last known address was in Miami.
During a Thursday night press conference, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Valente was found with two firearms and was wearing the same clothing seen in images police previously released of a person of interest.
Investigators received a tip about a vehicle linked to the suspect and later identified a rental car Valente had picked up in Boston and driven to Rhode Island.
The car was spotted outside Brown University, and police said Valente had covered the rental’s license plate with a Maine plate.
“He knew what he was doing,” Neronha said.
Surveillance video then showed Valente entering an apartment building near Loureiro’s home, then about an hour later entering a storage facility where he was later found dead on Thursday.
Neronha detailed that a person who was in close proximity to Valente around the time of the shooting came forward and provided invaluable information regarding the car Valente used, which they tracked to a Massachusetts rental facility.
Police were originally drawn to the Salem, New Hampshire, storage facility on Thursday due to a car of the same make and model that was seen near the Brown University shooting and the murder of Nuno Loureiro.
Authorities said he was wearing the same clothes seen shortly after the murder.
The storage unit where Valente was found was not one he had rented.
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr. said investigators were able to identify Valente through surveillance footage and rental records.
Authorities also confirmed that Valente and Loureiro attended the same university in Lisbon.
The attack on Brown University’s campus triggered hours of chaos across campus and surrounding Providence neighborhoods as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter and urged students and staff to shelter in place.
Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Uzbekistan, were killed when a man walked inside the engineering building and opened fire.
“In terms of why Brown, that is a mystery,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “That is really unknown to us. That may become clear. I hope that it does. But it hasn’t yet.”
The investigation into these incidents remains ongoing, but there is no longer a threat to the public.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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