Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire, also killed MIT professor, officials say

Both the suspect and MIT professor Nuno Loureiro studied physics at the same school in Portugal in the late 1990s.

In a statement, the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal confirmed that Neves Valente had been a student at its Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion, studying for a degree in Engineering Physics between 1995 and 2000. Loureiro took the course during the same period, the institute said.

"My understanding is that they did know each other," said Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

The Instituto Superior Técnico said it would not comment on the ongoing police investigation.

A tipster who encountered a man on a sidewalk outside Brown University provided crucial information that led to police identifying the suspect.

"He blew this case right open," said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

According to a Providence police affidavit, the tipster, identified only as "John," had several encounters with the suspect before Saturday's attack. As police posted images of a person of interest — now identified as Neves Valente — John began posting on the social media forum Reddit that he recognized the person and that police should look into "possibly a rental" gray Nissan.

"I was parked in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke St side," he wrote on Reddit. "I know because he used his key fob to open the car, approached it and then something prompted him to back away. When he backed away he relocked the car. I found that odd so when he circled the block I approached the car and that is when I saw the Florida plates." 

The affidavit says John gave investigators additional critical details: He saw the man in the bathroom of the engineering building just hours before the attack, where John noted the suspect's clothing was "inappropriate and inadequate for the weather."

Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, and John said he did. The police affidavit said they learned about the tip on Dec. 16, three days after the shooting and a day after the tip line was created.

The FBI has not yet confirmed if John will receive the $50,000 reward offered in the case.

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Officials said the suspect's last known address was in Miami. 

CBS News Miami went to the address in Ives Estates, an unincorporated area of northeast Miami-Dade County, where a man who answered the door said he didn't know the suspect and declined to talk.

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Charging documents in the case outline the movements of suspect Claudio Manuel Neves Valente before the shooting at Brown University and the MIT professor's murder two days later in Brookline, Massachusetts.

An FBI special agent says in the documents that there is probable cause to believe Neve Valente committed the mass shooting at Brown, then traveled from Rhode Island to Massachusetts to commit the murder in Brookline.

The document says that during two separate periods in late November, the suspect rented a hotel room in Boston. Then from about Dec. 1 until at least Dec. 12, license plate readers captured a vehicle he rented — a gray Nissan Sentra with a Florida license plate — about a mile from the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island.

CCTV images on the morning of Dec. 12 also captured an individual in the area of Brown University "consistent with images" of the suspect that were taken from surveillance video at the agency in Boston where he rented the car.
The mass shooting at Brown University occurred the following day, Dec. 13.

On or about the day after that, Dec. 14, Google email and voice accounts associated with the suspect "logged in from Internet Protocol addresses in the vicinity of Boston University." The following day, Dec. 15, MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was killed at his home in nearby Brookline. The charging documents said Loureiro's home was approximately half a mile from where the IP address associated with Neves Valente's Google email and voice accounts accessed the internet.

Following news conferences Thursday night in which authorities said the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings had been found dead, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts posted his picture on social media:

The only images of Neves-Valente the public had seen prior to the post were from surveillance video.

The suspect in the shooting at Brown University, and the killing of an MIT professor, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, came to the U.S. in 2017 after receiving a green card through a visa lottery program, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a social media post late Thursday night.

Noem said that she has directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS, to pause the program in response to the incident.

In the post, Noem said the suspect, a Portuguese national, had entered the U.S. through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.

According to USCIS, the program provides about 50,000 immigrant visas a year through a random lottery system to "countries with low rates of immigration" to the U.S.

Noem argued that President Trump had attempted to end the program in his first term.  

"At President Trump's direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program," Noem wrote Thursday.

The suspect also studied at Brown University from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, Brown University President Christina Paxson said Thursday. He was granted a student visa in 2000, according to a police affidavit. 

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In a separate news conference Thurday night in Massachusetts, federal prosecutors provided more details on the timeline of the suspect's movements prior to the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor.

According to Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, rented a hotel room in Boston from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30.

On Dec. 1, he rented a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from a car rental agency in Boston, and that same day, he drove "to the vicinity" of Brown University, Foley said.  

His car was "observed intermittently" between Dec. 1 and Dec. 12 in the area of Brown University, Foley said. The mass shooting took place on Dec. 13. 

Between Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, the suspect returned to Massachusetts, and on Dec. 15, "he murdered MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro's home in Brookline," Foley said.

He then switched the plates on his rental car to an unregistered Maine plate, Foley said, and drove to the storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where he had rented a unit and where he was found dead Thursday. 

"Investigators identified the vehicle that he had rented in Boston and drove to Rhode Island," Foley said. The vehicle was seen outside of Brown, and there was security footage of a person who resembled him.

"There were financial investigations that were going on in the background that linked him, not only to that car, but to the hotels that he had rented," Foley said. 

Security footage also showed the suspect within a half-mile of Loureiro's apartment, as well as footage showing him entering an apartment building "in the location of the professor's apartment," Foley said.  

About an hour later, he was seen entering the storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where he was found dead Thursday, dressed in the same clothes that he was seen wearing right after Loureiro's murder, Foley said. 

The suspect in the Brown University shooting is also believed to be responsible for the shooting death of an MIT professor at his home in Massachusetts two days later, federal prosecutors said late Thursday.

Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement in a news conference after authorities announced that the suspect had been found dead at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.

Between 1995 and 2000, the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, attended the same academic program in Portugal as slain MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, Foley said.

"My understanding is that they did know each other," Foley said of the suspect and Loureiro.  

Authorities released some details about the movements of the suspect prior to the Brown shooting. 

They said he had rented a car near Boston's Logan Airport, and that he had also rented a storage unit at the facility in New Hampshire where he was found dead Thursday night.  

"We found records, with the help of the FBI and others, that that was his storage area," Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. 

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez also said that the suspect was believed to have flown into Providence in early October. 

"We do know he was moving around New England in that October, November, December area," Neronha said.  

There was "no interaction" between the suspect and law enforcement before he died, Perez said. 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said investigators believe the suspect acted alone in the Brown University shooting. 

"We are 100% confident that this is our target, and that this case is closed from a perspective of pursuing people involved," Neronha said. 

But he said the motive remains a mystery.

"I don't think we have any idea why now, or why — why Brown? Why these students? Why this classroom? That is really unknown to us. It may become clear, I hope that it does, but it hasn't as of right now," Neronha said.

Officials said they believe the suspect previously attended the same university in Lisbon, Portugal, as MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was gunned down at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday. Both were natives of Portugal.

The suspect studied in Brown's physics Ph.D. program before dropping out, and Loureiro became a renowned researcher in that field. 

The suspect in the shooting at Brown University, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was a former student who was enrolled at the school from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, Brown University President Christina Paxson said. He was admitted to the graduate school to study a Ph.D. physics program.

He took a leave of absence in April 2001, before formally withdrawing on July 31, 2003, Paxson said.

He was only enrolled in physics classes while at Brown, which were held in the same building where the shooting took place. 

"The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held at the Barus & Holley classrooms and labs," Paxson said.

Providence Police Chief Col. Perez explained that the suspect was located with the help of security video that was used to identify a vehicle the suspect had rented. 

"In this specific incident, there was actually a video that provided us with a description of a vehicle that was corroborated to a tip that was received to the tip center," Perez said. 

License plate recognition cameras were able to provide investigators with a description of the vehicle, which led detectives to a car rental facility in Massachusetts, Perez said. 

Detectives were able to get footage of the person who rented the car and a copy of his car rental agreement, "which provided his real name," Perez said. 

The man matched the description of the shooting suspect, Perez said, who was identified as Claudio Neves-Valente.

The suspect had rented the car in Boston, Attorney General Peter Neronha said. 

Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez identified the suspect in the Brown University shooting as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student. 

The suspect was a Portuguese national whose last known residence was in Miami, Florida, Perez said during a news conference Thursday night.

He was found dead with a satchel and two firearms, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.   

The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting has been found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, sources told CBS News.

The police department for the northern Massachusetts border city of Methuen said its officers had been deployed to Salem, New Hampshire, for "an active investigation into a recent death."

Methuen is located about 5 miles south of Salem, where sources confirmed to CBS News Boston that authorities were searching a storage facility in connection with the Brown University shooting and the shooting death of an MIT professor.

The statement from Methuen police did not disclose if the investigation was related to the search for the suspect in the Brown University shooting.   

"Federal authorities, with the assistance of state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Methuen Police Department, are currently mobilizing resources at the border by Salem, NH/Methuen," at Route 28, the statement reads.

"At this time, there is no information indicating an imminent risk to the public or residents of Methuen," police added. 

Police are searching an area in Salem, New Hampshire, in connection with the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of the MIT professor, sources told CBS News Boston. 

Aerial video from the station showed authorities surrounding a storage unit facility. The U.S. Marshals Service, Providence police and Salem police were all on scene, CBS News Boston reported.

A vehicle possibly linked to the suspect was found abandoned in that area, according to CBS News Boston chief investigative reporter Cheryl Fiandaca. 

Salem is located about 40 minutes northwest of Boston, just over the border from Masssachusetts. Police were searching an area off Interstate 93. 

The ongoing, active manhunt for the Brown University shooting suspect is now taking place in multiple states, law enforcement sources tell CBS News.

Investigators are searching for a suspect in the Brown University shooting and a car that the person is believed to have rented, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Authorities believe the rented vehicle is the same make and model of a car that was also detected in the vicinity of the apartment of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was shot at his residence on Monday and died in a hospital the following day, the sources said.

Surveillance video released by investigators traced the movements of the person of interest before and after the shooting Saturday afternoon. He was first seen on camera on a street near the Brown University campus at about 2 p.m.

A few minutes later, was seen pacing a couple of block away and then jogging down two nearby streets. 

At about 4 p.m., the shooting took place in the Barus & Holley building on campus. Afterwards, investigators believe he cut through a parking lot and was last spotted at 4:06 p.m. 

Police have shared multiple videos and images of the person, who is dressed in black and wearing a hat and face covering. But even a version "enhanced" by authorities did not provide a clear view of the person's face. The FBI described the person as being about 5-foot-8 with a stocky build. 

Nuno Loureiro, a nuclear science and engineering professor from Portugal, taught plasma physics at MIT and led its Plasma Science and Fusion Center. 

The 47-year-old was found shot Monday night at his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at a hospital the following day. 

"Nuno was not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person," colleague Dennis Whyte said in an obituary published Tuesday by MIT. "He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner. His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world."

Authorities are investigating his death as a homicide. 

The two students killed in the shooting at Brown University on Saturday, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, are being remembered as "brilliant and beloved — as members of our campus community, but even more by their friends and families," Brown's president, Christina H. Paxson, wrote in a letter to the university community. 

Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, was vice president of Brown's College Republicans. 

"Ella was a devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama," Alabama Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth said in a post on X. "A bright future was ended much too soon."

Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman, was studying biochemistry and neuroscience. His sister, Samira Umurzokova, said he was helping a friend study for an economics final when he was shot.

"It's just heartbreaking for the community, we're all really in shock right now," student Jack Cox told CBS News Boston.

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