Suspected Brown University Shooter Found Dead from a Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound, Officials Say

The man believed to be responsible for a deadly mass shooting at Brown University and the subsequent killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor has been found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities announced Thursday evening.

Law enforcement located 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where he was discovered with a gunshot wound consistent with suicide. He had been the focus of an intensive multi-day manhunt following the attacks that shocked communities across New England.

The Brown University Attack

On December 13, 2025, Valente allegedly entered a lecture hall in the School of Engineering at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, during a study session for finals and opened fire, killing two students and injuring nine others.

The victims who died were Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old first-year student from Uzbekistan. Six of the injured remained hospitalized in stable condition days later, according to authorities.

Killing of MIT Professor

Two days after the Brown shooting, on December 15, police responded to a report of a shooting at the home of Nuno Gomes Loureiro, a respected 47-year-old MIT physics and nuclear science professor in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he was found shot multiple times and later died from his injuries.

Officials later confirmed that evidence connected this killing to the Brown University attack, with investigators noting ties between Valente and Loureiro. The two had studied in the same academic program in Lisbon, Portugal, in the late 1990s, though the precise nature of their relationship remains under investigation.

Investigation and Manhunt

A crucial break in the case came when a witness who had encountered Valente before the Brown attack recognized him from released images and alerted authorities, pointing them to a rented Nissan sedan traced through city surveillance cameras. Investigators noted Valente had attempted to evade detection by switching license plates on the vehicle.

Over several days, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies worked to track Valente’s movements across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Despite an earlier arrest and release of a person of interest, the search continued until his body was found Thursday evening.

Suspect Background

Officials said Valente was a Portuguese national who had briefly studied physics at Brown as a graduate student from 2000 to 2001, but he had no current affiliation with the university at the time of the attack. He had been living lawfully in the United States since 2017.

Authorities have not yet determined a clear motive for the shootings, and investigations into Valente’s actions and possible motives are ongoing. Brown University canceled final exams and sent students home early as the community reeled from the tragedy.