Suspect found. What to know about Brown University, MIT shooter

• Authorities identified the suspect in the deadly Brown University shooting as a former PhD student.
• A tipster who saw a rental car circling the area helped police crack the case.
• Investigators believe the suspect, who was seen on camera hours before the attack, was "casing" the scene.

Authorities announced Dec. 18 that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente is the man responsible for both the deadly Brown University assault and the shooting death of Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days later. Valente later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit.

Neves Valente, 48, originally from Portugal, was a former Brown University PhD physics student, who knew Loureiro, authorities said at two separate news conferences on the night of Dec. 18.

Law enforcement in four states pieced the details together, said Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley during a news conference in Boston. Collectively, she said, they believe "that we identified the person, and that person is dead, and that he was the person responsible, not only for the Brown shootings, but for the Brookline (MIT) shooting."

Neves Valente was "sophisticated in covering his tracks," including obscuring his cell phone so it couldn't be tracked, switching plates on his rental car and not using credit cards in his name, Foley said.

Investigators first identified Neves Valente on the afternoon of Dec. 17 and were able to connect him to both crime scenes through financial background information, including rental records for a car he drove to Providence and Massachusetts.

An affidavit signed by a Rhode Island district judge said police cracked the case after a tipster recognized a rental car circling the area. The tipster said police should be looking for a gray Nissan Altima and license plate, information the police hadn't previously released. Police then tracked down images of Neves Valente renting the car at an Alamo location in Boston.

Here's what to know about the shooter:

When did Claudio Manuel Neves Valente enter the U.S.?

Neves Valente entered the country in 2000 on a student F-1 visa. He was admitted as a lawful permanent resident in September 2017.

What are Neves Valente's links to Brown University?

He was a PhD student at the school between 2000-2001 before taking a leave of absence in April 2001, Brown President Christina Paxson confirmed during the Rhode Island news conference. He withdrew on July 31, 2003. His last known address was in Miami, according to police.

During his time at Brown, he took only physics classes, Paxson said. The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held in the Barus and Holley classrooms, she said. The shootings at Brown, which left 2 dead and nine others injured, occurred in that building.

"I think it's safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities as a PhD student in physics," Paxson said, adding he had no current active affiliation with the university.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said investigators had evidence that the suspect was near the university hours before the shooting. Footage from neighborhood cameras shared by authorities showed the person in dark clothing and wearing a mask walking along streets a few blocks away from the campus on Dec. 13.

Investigators believe it was likely the person was "casing" the scene, according to Perez. "There's a lot of leads we have here that show that the person who committed this tragedy is the guy in this video," the police chief said.

Tipster in Brown shooting posts information to Reddit

The announcement comes after authorities urged the public to help with the widening investigation and dayslong search for the person suspected of carrying out the attack. Authorities had released enhanced images and video footage of the person investigators believe could be tied to the Brown shooting that killed two students and injured nine others.

The tipster took his information first to the social media site Reddit, posting: "I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental," John, whose last name is being withheld by authorities, wrote, according to the affidavit.

That description matched information authorities had not publicly released, the affidavit said. On videos captured in the area, police noticed the suspect was seen several times circling an area near the Barus and Holley building. One video showed him encountering an unknown person and then running away.

Providence Police released images of that unknown person interacting with the suspect on Dec. 17. The person approached police shortly after and identified himself as John, the individual in the video and the Reddit poster.

John told police he first encountered the suspect inside a bathroom on the ground floor of the Barus Holley building on Dec. 13. He described the man as having "weathered" skin, a "cinnamon color complexion," and chubby faced. John said he watched the suspect leave the building and, apparently because he was acting suspiciously, followed him.

He described seeing the suspect approach a gray or silver sedan with a Florida license plate, unlocking it with a key fob. But the suspect suddenly turned around and walked in the opposite direction, looking at John as if he knew him, according to the affidavit.

John observed the suspect looping back to the area, then switching directions every time they saw each other, which John described as "a game of cat and mouse." When they encountered each other on George Street, the suspect ran in the opposite direction, according to John, who described slowing to a speed-walk, walking past the suspect then turning around to confront him approximately two feet away.

"Your car is back there, why are you circling the block," John told authorities he asked the suspect. The suspect replied "I don't know you from nobody," and repeatedly asked John why he was harassing him, in what John thought appeared to be a Hispanic accent or cadence, according to the affidavit. From that point, John told police they had no other encounters. When police showed John photos of the suspect and his vehicle, the tipster recognized one of the images as the person he encountered.

A break in the case

The tipster's interview was the break investigators needed, Perez said.

A Brown University faculty member also reported seeing the suspicious vehicle driving unusually slow on the morning of Dec. 11. Cameras in the vicinity showed the Nissan with the Florida plate in the area 14 different times, starting on the evening of Dec. 1.

On the morning of Dec. 17, police were able to connect the car to a vehicle rented in downtown Boston by a driver who presented a Florida driver's license.

Authorities say Neves Valente linked to both Brown and MIT shootings

Once the car and Neves Valente were identified, authorities were able to link it to the shooting death of Loureiro, the 47-year-old MIT professor, and to hotels Neves Valente had rented, said Foley, the Massachusetts U.S. attorney.

On December 15th, "he murdered MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro's home in Brookline, Massachusetts," she said. They found security footage of him within a half-mile Loureiro's apartment, and entering an apartment building in the location of the professor's apartment.

According to the FBI's legal attaché in Lisbon, Loureiro and Neves Valente attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal during the same five-year period, between 1995 and 2000, a federal affidavit filed in Massachusetts stated. 

Foley also said they have information of Neves Valente "being in New England throughout 2025."

"Once we get the information about why he came up here, what drove him to be up here, we will share that with the public," she said. 

The shooting occurred at Brown shortly before 4:05 p.m. local time on Dec. 13 in an engineering building with unlocked doors as final exams were underway. Authorities said the suspect opened fire with a 9mm gun inside a classroom and then fled.

The two students killed were identified as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Virginia who immigrated from Uzbekistan.