The man responsible for a deadly shooting at Brown University and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor planned the attacks over several years and left behind video recordings in which he confessed, according to details released Tuesday by the United States Department of Justice.
The shooter, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown University student and Portuguese national, carried out an attack on December 13, 2025, inside an engineering building at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Two students were killed and nine others wounded during the shooting. Two days later, authorities say he fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro at the professor’s home in Brookline, a Boston suburb.
Neves Valente was later found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire on December 18. During a search of the unit, FBI agents recovered an electronic device containing several short videos recorded after the shootings.
According to the Justice Department, the videos include a confession delivered in Portuguese in which Neves Valente admitted to planning the attack for at least six academic semesters. However, investigators said he did not provide a clear motive for targeting Brown University or Loureiro, with whom he studied in Portugal decades earlier.
Officials noted that the recordings do not constitute a manifesto and offer no ideological explanation for the violence. In the videos, Neves Valente dismissed claims circulated online that he made religious or political statements during the attack, describing those allegations as false.
Authorities confirmed that the victims at Brown University were sophomore Ella Cook, 19, and freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18. The wounded were described as being shot at random during the incident.
Investigators also detailed how a witness encounter near the Brown campus played a role in identifying Neves Valente as a suspect. A witness who noticed his vehicle later shared information online and contacted federal authorities, helping link the suspect to a car seen near the scene.
Loureiro, the MIT professor killed days later, shared an academic background with Neves Valente in Portugal during the late 1990s. Records indicate Loureiro completed his studies in 2000, the same year Neves Valente was dismissed from a position at the Lisbon institution.
Brown University, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the community continues to mourn the loss of the two students and expressed ongoing support for those injured in the attack.
The Justice Department said its investigation into the shootings remains ongoing, with a focus on reconstructing the timeline of events and assessing how the suspect evaded detection for several days.
