The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts have officially wrapped up their investigation into the chilling mass shooting that occurred in December at Brown University, followed by the murder of an MIT professor. Their findings reveal that the shooter began planning this deadly rampage as early as 2022.
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national residing legally in Miami, Florida, executed the horrific attack on December 13 in Providence, Rhode Island. Just two days later, he murdered MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The attack at Brown University claimed the lives of two students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, while injuring nine others.
Valente, who had previously attended Brown University, had studied physics under Professor Loureiro from the fall of 2000 until spring 2001, withdrawing from the program by 2003. According to the FBI, these tragic shootings were not linked to any form of terrorism.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have released a photograph of Claudio Neves Valente, identifying him as the perpetrator behind the deadly incidents at Brown University in Rhode Island and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit reports that Valente perceived his victims as “symbolic” targets. He was reportedly grappling with long-standing suicidal thoughts, paranoia, and a persistent feeling of inadequacy. As an unemployed former ride-hailing driver, he possessed an inflated sense of self-worth and held others responsible for his perceived lack of achievement.
Valente, a former physics prodigy, used violence to overcome his shame and punish those he felt contributed to his downfall, investigators found.
The FBI said the attacks were meticulously planned over several years in isolation.
Providence police search floor by floor after a shooting at Brown University in Providence, R.I., on Dec. 13, 2025. Nine people were injured and two were killed. (Providence Police Department)
Valente began plotting the Brown University massacre as early as 2022, renting a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, to stash his weapons.
Officials said that because of his transient lifestyle and social isolation, Valente did not have family or peers to report warning signs to authorities.
Following the two shootings, Valente left behind a chilling series of audio and video files confessing to the murders, showing no signs of remorse and failing to explain why he committed the crimes.
An empty Barus and Holley Room 166 at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where a man opened fire during an ECON 0110 review session on Dec. 13, 2024, shooting 11 students. (Kenna Lee/The Brown Daily Herald)
In one file, he called his shooting victims “kind of stupid.” Valente added that he didn’t “give a d—” if he was judged for his actions.
Authorities recovered his body in Salem, New Hampshire, alongside two 9mm Glock pistols after he committed suicide.
Investigators collect evidence at the scene where Brown University shooter Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente was found dead in Salem, N.H., on Dec. 19, 2025. (David McGlynn/Fox News Digital)
The FBI noted both firearms, a Glock 34 used at Brown University and a Glock 26 used in the murder of Loureiro, were legally purchased by Valente from a Florida pawn shop in 2020 and 2022.
Officials said the multi-agency probe into Valente’s motivations involved scouring more than 11,000 surveillance files, analyzing over 2,100 audio and video files from his personal devices, and conducting upward of 260 interviews.
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