FIRST ON FOX: In a harrowing incident that has rocked the Brown University community, newly released records from police and fire departments reveal the tumultuous response to a shooting that resulted in the tragic deaths of two students and left several others injured.
The violent episode took place at the Barus and Holley building shortly after 4 p.m. on December 13. This location is nestled near the bustling Brown Sciences Library and other academic structures that line Thayer, Hope, and Waterman streets. These details come from dispatch records reviewed by Fox News Digital, courtesy of the Providence Police (PPD) and Fire Department.
In the immediate aftermath, law enforcement reported taking swift action. Within the first hour, officers had one potential suspect in custody inside an academic building. They also engaged with another possible suspect and detained a third individual found in a nearby vehicle.
Specifically, at 4:22 p.m., police encountered a possible suspect hiding in a basement at 167 Thayer St. By 4:38 p.m., they had one person in custody after confronting a suspect in a bathroom within the same building. Just minutes later, at 4:42 p.m., officers detained someone in a vehicle close by.
Although these detentions were crucial, they are distinct from an individual apprehended the next morning at a Coventry hotel. This person was subsequently released, leaving questions that Fox News Digital has posed to the PPD, awaiting their comments.
Images of Providence Police officers entering the Barus and Holley building have been captured, notably on December 16, 2025, as they continued their investigation. These images were taken by John Tlumacki of The Boston Globe via Getty Images, encapsulating the tense atmosphere on campus.
Initial 911 calls reported a man shot in the back near Manning Walk. Within minutes, Brown University police notified city authorities that multiple people had been shot, expanding the response footprint to several buildings, including Barus and Holley, 167 Thayer St., 115 Waterman St. and 184 Hope St.
Dispatch records reveal that police radio traffic confirmed an active shooter, with callers reporting 10 shots fired inside hallways and classrooms within the Ivy League building.
Witnesses initially described a male suspect wearing all black clothing and a face covering. Police later released the initial suspects.
As reports flooded in, hundreds of students sheltered in place across campus buildings, including Solomon Hall, where police said that roughly 150 to 300 people were barricaded inside.
Crime scene tape blocks off streets near Brown University as investigation continues in Providence, R.I., Saturday. (Andrea Margolis / Fox News Digital)
Providence Fire Department officials quickly declared a mass casualty incident, according to records, with the department dispatching rescue task forces and requesting ballistic protection for medics who were ordered to standby until police could secure each scene.
Hospitals across the region were notified, with Rhode Island Hospital designated to receive the most critically injured victims.
Despite its role as Brown University’s highest governing authority with direct power over presidential oversight and long-term strategy, the board of trustees has declined to comment in the wake of the murders that exposed serious lapses in campus security. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Law enforcement officials carrying weapons gather near Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, during the investigation of a shooting. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)
Fire department logs show victims were located both inside and outside buildings, including in hallways, stairwells and basement areas.
As officers cleared buildings floor by floor, police reported multiple victims exiting the building and groups barricaded on upper floors awaiting rescue.
Officials indicated there was no longer an active threat, though searches continued for hours as officers methodically cleared basements, rooftops, mechanical rooms and stairwells amid concerns of additional suspects or victims.
A makeshift memorial is seen on the Brown University campus near the scene of a shooting in Providence, Rhode Island on Dec. 15, 2025. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
By early evening, buildings were declared secure, and buses were brought in to relocate sheltered students to reunification points.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Providence Police Department for more information and requested the audio recordings of the 911 calls related to the shooting but has not yet received them.
Police said the gunman was Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, a onetime physics prodigy from Portugal who later died by suicide after a multistate manhunt.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this image showing the man identified in the deadly shootings of Brown University students in Rhode Island and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. (Justice Department)
Neves-Valente was a Portuguese national and former Brown student who studied physics from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 before withdrawing from the program by 2003, according to Brown University President Christina Paxson. She emphasized that Neves-Valente had no recent affiliation with the university at the time of the campus shooting.
The Providence Police Department has not publicly released details regarding a motive.
Authorities said Neves-Valente killed two students and injured nine in the Brown attack, then traveled to Massachusetts and killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro two days later.
The Daily Mail reported that Dr. Bruno Goncalves, president of Portugal’s Institute of Plasma and Nuclear Fusion, said Neves-Valente did not maintain any known relationship with Loureiro in the decades after they studied together there, underscoring that the attack was not the result of an ongoing rivalry or dispute.
Investigators collect evidence around the Nissan Sentra which was used by Brown University shooter Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, in Salem, N.H., Thursday, Dec. 19, 2025. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
Instead, Goncalves said Neves-Valente may have fixated on what Loureiro had come to represent.
“The strongest theory is that Claudio saw Nuno as a symbol of the academic and professional success that he himself had failed to achieve,” Goncalves said.
