A six-day manhunt for a gunman who terrorized an Ivy League campus ended Thursday night when authorities discovered the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a New Hampshire storage facility.
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who briefly studied physics at Brown University over two decades ago, was found deceased in an unoccupied storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
He had two firearms with him at the time of his death.
The discovery came after a Reddit tip and witness testimony led investigators to track Valente’s movements across multiple states.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced the development at a Thursday night news conference, stating, “Tonight our Providence neighbors can breathe a little easier.”
The shocking violence began Dec. 13 when Valente opened fire during a study session at Brown University’s School of Engineering Barus and Holley Building.
He fired 40 rounds, killing two students and wounding 12 others.
The victims were identified as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, 19, of Alabama.
Both students died at the scene shortly after 4pm when the gunman burst into their study session.
Two days after the Brown shooting, Valente fatally shot MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro inside his Boston home, nearly 50 miles away.
Authorities revealed that Loureiro was actually Valente’s primary target, raising new questions about the timeline and motive behind both attacks.
Valente and Loureiro had attended the same school in Portugal from 1995 to 2000, according to the Daily Mail. However, investigators have not determined what relationship existed between the two men or what motivated the violence.
Loureiro was shot around 8:30pm on Monday, Dec. 15.
His neighbor Louise Cohen discovered his body after hearing gunshots while lighting a menorah candle.
Cohen found Loureiro lying on his back in the hallway of their Gibbs Street building, with his wife and another neighbor present.
The professor was transported to a hospital but died the following day.
He leaves behind a wife and three children.
The investigation took a critical turn Dec. 16 when Providence police received an anonymous tip referencing a Reddit post, the Daily Mail reported.
The post detailed sightings of a gray Nissan with Florida plates parked near the Rhode Island Historical Society.
“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,” the Reddit post read.
A homeless witness identified as John provided crucial testimony that broke the case open.
John encountered Valente inside the Barus Holley bathroom between 1:45pm and 2pm on the day of the shooting.
John described Valente’s clothing as “inappropriate and inadequate for the weather,” wearing a baggy jacket with multiple shirt layers underneath.
The witness noted the pants and shoes appeared to be “kitchen/restaurant worker style, of poor quality.”
John observed Valente engaging in suspicious behavior, constantly changing directions in what the witness described as a “game of cat and mouse.”
When John confronted Valente about circling the block away from his parked vehicle, the suspect responded “I don’t know you from nobody” and repeatedly asked “Why are you harassing me?”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha credited John’s testimony as critical to finding Valente.
“That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence,” Neronha said.
Investigators discovered Valente had employed sophisticated countermeasures to avoid detection.
CNN reported that he swapped license plates, used a cellphone that obfuscated his location and utilized credit cards not registered in his name.
Despite these precautions, authorities in Massachusetts determined that a Google email account Valente used to check into a Boston hotel logged in from an IP address half a mile from Loureiro’s home on Dec. 14.
Surveillance footage captured a blue or gray Nissan Sentra about a mile from the physics professor’s home, and cameras showed Valente entering a nearby apartment building.
Approximately one hour later, he was seen entering the Salem storage facility wearing the same clothing.
Valente had rented a hotel from Nov. 26 through Nov. 30, then rented a vehicle on Dec. 1.
That vehicle was observed around Brown University through the day of the Dec. 13 shooting.
The big break came when authorities investigating the Brown shooting noticed similarities with the Loureiro murder investigation in Massachusetts.
Both cases involved vehicles of the same make and model, though with different license plates.
Law enforcement officials confirmed the two vehicles were actually the same car.
US Attorney Leah Foley stated that Valente was captured on surveillance footage near both crime scenes wearing identical clothing.
