PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Just before Thanksgiving, Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, checked into a hotel in Boston and made his way to Brown University, where he had pursued his studies in physics 25 years prior. The short drive to Providence soon turned into a series of visits to the Ivy League campus, where Valente was seen repeatedly in the days that followed, driving a gray Nissan rental car with Florida plates.
According to authorities, on December 13, Valente returned to Brown University armed with a 9 mm handgun and carried out a mass shooting in a lecture hall, resulting in the death of two students and injuring nine others. Following the chaos of the incident, he managed to escape the scene. Two days later, he fatally shot Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a former classmate from Portugal, at Loureiro's home.
In the pursuit of the shooter, investigators released surveillance footage in hopes of identifying Valente, but he was always masked, making his facial recognition difficult. "I wish the video could speak, and then I’d have the answers I need," said Colonel Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, during a press briefing. As investigators worked to piece together Valente's activities in New England prior to the shooting, they established that he had numerous interactions on the Brown campus, including being spotted by a custodian twice while students were home for the holiday break.
Valente had studied at Brown as a graduate student during the 2000-01 academic year and was seen at a Boston rental car agency as early as November 17. He had seemingly come from Miami, where he last resided, checking into a Boston hotel from November 26 to November 30. The custodian reported seeing him enter through the same door that had been used by the shooter on the day of the attack.
On the day of the mass shooting, December 13, Valente spent hours near the campus, alternately jogging and walking, demonstrating a distinctive gait. He was first spotted on surveillance footage just after 10:30 a.m. A man, identified only as "John," alerted police after encountering Valente in a first-floor bathroom of the engineering building. John described Valente's complexion and noted his clothing was unsuitable for the cold New England weather in December. Their interaction led to a "game of cat and mouse," with John observing Valente's actions closely.
At about 4 p.m., Valente entered the engineering building and opened fire in a lecture hall before escaping. Due to insufficient security cameras in the building, investigators relied on blurred images from home security systems and nearby vehicles to track Valente's movements. Initially, early investigations did lead authorities to identify a person of interest, but he was released after investigators confirmed he was not involved.
The night following the Brown shooting, gunfire erupted in Brookline, a Boston suburb, where Professor Loureiro was shot at his home. He succumbed to his injuries the next day, the same day Valente reportedly shot himself in New Hampshire. The connection between the two incidents emerged later as investigators linked the shooter of the Brown attack to Loureiro's killing. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist, was a notable figure in his field, having overseen one of MIT's largest labs.
In the aftermath of the shooting, investigators undertook extensive efforts to identify the Brown attacker. Survivors from the lecture hall began to recognize Valente's image in the circulated video footage. One victim's emotional reaction solidified the belief that Valente was responsible, though none of the witnesses could name him prior to the incident.
The breakthrough in the investigation materialized when John’s tip allowed police to tap into a network of over 70 street cameras operated by Flock Safety, a surveillance company. The footage showed Valente, who attempted to obscure his identity by switching out his rental car's license plate with a Maine plate, visiting an apartment block near Loureiro’s home before traveling north to a storage facility in New Hampshire, where he was later found dead.
As the investigation unfolded, it highlighted not only the tragic outcomes of Valente's actions but also the continued challenges faced by authorities in tracking down such violent acts and ensuring public safety.
