Detailed timeline shows Claudio Neves Valente's actions in Brown University and MIT professor shootings
A detailed timeline of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente's actions before, during, and after the Brown and MIT shootings has emerged in the evidence shared by investigators after his death.
Here is how it all unfolded, according to a Providence Police affidavit on the investigation, U.S. attorney Leah Foley and CBS News coverage.
Fall of 2000 and spring of 2001
Valente was admitted to the U.S. on a student visa and began graduate school at Brown University, where he took physics classes at the Barus & Holley building. He took a leave of absence in April 2001 and formally withdrew from the school in July 2003.
2017
Valente moved to the United States after receiving a green card through a visa lottery program. His last known residence was in Miami, Florida.
Monday, Nov. 17 (26 days before the Brown shooting)
Valente is seen on surveillance video at an Alamo Rent a Car on Atlantic Avenue in Boston at 11:44 a.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 26 (17 days before the shooting)
According to Foley, Valente rented a hotel room in Boston between November 26 and November 30.
Friday, Nov. 28 (15 days before the shooting)
A Brown University custodian spots a man in a surgical mask and the same clothes as the suspect, in the Barus & Holley building. The man walked into a bathroom, across from room 166, the auditorium where the shootings will eventually happen. The man was walking with a limp.
Monday, Dec. 1 (12 days before the shooting)
According to the affidavit, Valente rented a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from an Alamo Rent-a-Car on Atlantic Avenue in Boston at 11:36 a.m. Foley said he then drove "to the vicinity" of Brown University.
The Brown University custodian sees the same man again in Barus & Holley.
Foley said Valente's rental car was "observed intermittently" between Dec. 1 and Dec. 12 in the area of Brown University.
Saturday, Dec. 13 — the day of the Brown University shooting
At 10:35 a.m., the suspect is seen on surveillance video wearing a mask, walking at Manning and Cooke streets in Providence, about five minutes away from the Barus & Holley building at Brown University.
He is also spotted roaming on Cooke Street at 10:37 a.m., 10:56 a.m., 2 p.m. and 2:52 p.m.
At 2:16 p.m., he encountered another person, later identified by police as "John," on George Street. Valente then ran away from John, who ran after him. The two are then seen again "in close proximity."
At 2:56 p.m., the suspect is seen on surveillance video walking from Manning Street to Hope Street, crossing Hope Street into a parking lot near the Barus & Holley building.
At 3:15 p.m.. he is spotted on Governor Street, George Street, Cooke Street and Benevolent Street, all within three blocks of the Barus & Holley building.
Around 4 p.m., officials say he went into the Barus & Holley building and fired multiple shots in an auditorium, killing students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others. Police recovered 44 spent 9-millimeter shell casings at the scene, according to the affidavit.
At 4:03 p.m., a camera on a Brown University shuttle bus showed him walking away from the Barus & Holley building.
At 4:06 p.m., he is spotted briefly on surveillance video walking at the corner of Hope and Waterman streets. This short video was the first clip released to the public as the manhunt began.
At 4:08 p.m., he is shown walking on Waterman Street.
At 4:11 p.m., he was last shown on Pittman Street in Providence. Foley said Valente returned to Massachusetts between Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday, Dec. 14
A person of interest is detained at a hotel in Coventry, Rhode Island, but is later released. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that night that while some evidence had "pointed to" that person of interest, the evidence now "points in a different direction."
Police continued viewing and collecting video from surveillance cameras and doorbell cameras on the east side of Providence.
They determined the gunman is about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and they observed his "common gait and body movements" along with a "distinctive walk."
Monday, Dec. 15 — the day of the MIT professor's shooting
Providence Police released multiple videos and images showing someone they called a person of interest.
Detectives also interviewed some of the shooting survivors at Rhode Island Hospital. When they were shown the images, they confirmed he looked like the gunman.
One woman "said she got a good look at the suspect. When provided with a photo of the Suspect, (she) quickly froze, physically pushed back, and became emotional. She was observed to be tearing up and shaking. She then confirmed that the image showed the shooter."
Investigators interviewed the Brown University custodian who had spotted a man who resembled the person of interest on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1. They then reviewed Brown surveillance footage from Dec. 1, "where they saw an individual matching the general description of the suspect"
At 8:33 p.m., a man is shot at an apartment on Gibbs Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, about 50 miles from Brown University. He was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital where he died Tuesday morning.
Foley later said security footage showed Valente "within a half mile" of the home and "there's video of him entering that apartment building" that night.
She said he was seen about an hour later, entering a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, "wearing the same clothes that he had been seen wearing right after the murder." According to Foley, Valente rented the unit in November.
Tuesday, Dec. 16
The man who was shot and killed in Brookline is identified as MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, a nuclear science and engineering professor from Portugal. He was 47 years old. No other information is released to the public about the shooting.
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks told reporters in Providence that "there seems to be no connection as it relates to" the Brown shooting.
According to Foley, at some point, while he was in Massachusetts, Valente switched the plates on the Nissan Sentra to an unregistered plate out of Maine.
Meanwhile, Providence Police released enhanced videos of the person of interest, hoping to generate more leads.
That same day, their tip command center was told about a Reddit post from a person who claimed to have seen the suspected shooter.
"He blew this case right open," Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha would later say.
The man, known only as "John" in the Providence Police affidavit, said he had several encounters with the suspect before Saturday's shooting.
The Reddit post said:
"I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving. It was parked in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke St. side. 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 that is when I saw the Florida plates. He was parked in the section between the gate of the RIHS and the corner of Cooke and George St."
Based on the tip, police took another look at surveillance video in the area and spotted the Nissan.
Wednesday, Dec. 17
Providence Police asked for the public's help in finding and speaking with a second person, who was later identified as the tipster, "John."
They released still images of him "interacting with the suspect" at 2:16 p.m. on Dec. 13, less than two hours before the Brown shooting.
Later Wednesday evening, the Reddit poster approached police at the Brown University Alumni Hall on Meeting Street and identified himself. "John" went to the police station with officers and agreed to a recorded interview.
He said he first encountered the suspect in a bathroom at the Barus & Holley building between 1:45 and 2 p.m. on Dec. 13, about two hours before the shooting. He gave investigators an extremely detailed description of Valente and his clothes, which he described as "inappropriate and inadequate for the weather." John said Valente left the building and went to the parking lot. He then followed Valente up Manning Street.
John then went into further detail about the encounter described in his Reddit post and told officers the suspect would switch directions every time they saw each other, and that it turned into a "game of cat and mouse" between the two of them.
At one point, on George Street, they got within two feet of each other.
According to the affidavit, "John asked the Suspect, 'Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?' The Suspect responded, 'I don't know you from nobody,' then Suspect repeatedly asked, 'Why are you harassing me?'"
John said he walked away and never saw the man again. Less than two hours later, the gunman opened fire on students in the Barus & Holley building.
Police showed John two photos from a license-plate reader camera, known as Flock images, of the Nissan and he said "Holy s---. That might be it."
Police had obtained the images of the car after a Brown faculty member came to them on Dec. 17 about seeing a Nissan with Florida plates driving "unusually slow" in the area near campus on Thursday, Dec. 11 — two days before the shooting.
Police searched Flock cameras around the east side of Providence and found 14 images of the Nissan dating as far back as Dec. 1.
Investigators traced the car's license plate to the Alamo rental center in Boston and found it was rented by Valente. ATF agents went to the Alamo and started looking through their surveillance video. Video from Dec. 1 showed Valente.
Police also found video of Valente at the Alamo as far back as Nov. 17.
"In that critical video, Valente is seen wearing the exact same outfit as the Suspect on December 13," police wrote in the affidavit.
Thursday, Dec. 18
The U.S. Attorneys Offices in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut worked together to establish probable cause to charge Valente.
A criminal complaint was filed, and that led to a search of the storage unit he had rented in Salem, New Hampshire.
At 9 p.m., federal agents found Valente there dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They also found a satchel, two guns and more evidence from the attacks, according to investigators. Foley said they don't know when Valente died.
The Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal then confirmed that Valente had been a student at its Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion, studying for a degree in Engineering Physics between 1995 and 2000. MIT professor Nuno Loureiro took the courses during the same period, the institute said.
"My understanding is that they did know each other," Foley told reporters late Thursday night.
She would not comment in a news conference Thursday night on any ballistics evidence from the shootings.
"He was sophisticated in hiding his tracks," Foley said of the suspect.
The motive for the killings is still under investigation. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said investigators believe Valente acted alone.