Brown University and MIT shooting suspect found dead in storage facility after massive manhunt
The suspect in the deadly shooting at Brown University has been found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire after a five-day manhunt, officials said.
“I will tell you that he took his own life tonight,” Colonel Oscar Perez, the chief of the Providence Police Department in Rhode Island, said late Thursday.
Two students were killed and nine were injured Saturday after a gunman sprayed a classroom with more than 44 rounds of ammunition during a study session on Brown University’s campus.
Perez identified the suspect in the shooting as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national. Massachusetts authorities later said Neves Valente was also responsible for the shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor earlier this week.
Earlier Thursday, police tracked Neves Valente to a storage unit where he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Brown President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was a physics PhD student at the university from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001 before taking a leave of absence and formally withdrawing in the summer of 2003. Neves Valente arrived in the U.S. 25 years ago on a student visa and obtained lawful permanent residency in 2017, according to officials.
A satchel, two firearms and evidence “that matches exactly what we see at the scene here in Providence” were also found, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Officials are yet to reveal a suspected motive for both shootings.
Rhode Island officials shared details about how they located Neves Valente using video footage.
They said a video provided them with a description of a vehicle, which was corroborated through a tip, that eventually led them to a car rental place in Massachusetts. Law enforcement were then able get a copy of the rental agreement, which included the suspect’s name.
Neronha said a person with information about the suspect “blew this case right open.”
“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, that matched the satchel,” he said.
The car that Neves Valente rented in Boston was found in New Hampshire. He changed license plates on the car while he was driving, making him harder to track, Neronha said.
An arrest warrant for Neves Valente charging him with two counts of murder and 23 felony counts of assault and felony firearms offenses was issued Thursday, according to a press release from Neronha’s office.
