The U.S. Department of Justice has revealed disturbing new details about the man accused of killing two Brown University students and an MIT professor, stating that he had been planning the attacks for months and recorded video confessions admitting to the murders.
Authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown University student. He was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility on December 18, just days after he fatally shot two students and injured nine others at Brown University’s engineering building on December 13. Two days later, he allegedly killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at the professor’s home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
According to the Justice Department, FBI agents searching the storage unit discovered an electronic device containing several short videos recorded by Neves Valente after the shootings. In the recordings, spoken in Portuguese, he admitted he had been planning the Brown University shooting “for a long time,” claiming he had spent at least six academic semesters finalizing the details. Despite the detailed planning, he never shared a clear motive for the Brown attack or the killing of Professor Loureiro, whom he had known decades earlier while studying in Portugal.
In the videos, Neves Valente said he did not regret his actions and refused to apologize, claiming that “no one ever sincerely apologized” to him during his lifetime. He indicated that his goal was to leave life on his “own terms” and ensure he did not “end up suffering the most” from the consequences of his actions. He even described his execution of the murders as “a little incompetent,” yet stated that “at least something was done.”
He also revealed he had rented the storage unit where his body was later found for nearly three years. Neves Valente addressed the witness who helped police identify him, acknowledging that the individual had spotted his license plate. The witness, who reportedly encountered the suspect multiple times before the Brown attack, recognized him when police released images and began posting details on Reddit. After Reddit users urged him to contact authorities, he alerted the FBI, leading investigators to a rented gray Nissan tied to the suspect.
Authorities said that until that tip, they had not linked any vehicle to the shooter.
Neves Valente shared that he neither loved nor hated the United States, where he first arrived about 25 years ago to attend Brown University’s graduate physics program before leaving in 2001. He lived legally in the U.S., having obtained permanent residency in 2017, with Miami listed as his most recent residence. He expressed similar indifference toward Portugal, saying he had lived “without caring for a very long time.”
Law enforcement continues to review the videos and other evidence as they work to understand the full scale of his planning and the motivations behind the deadly attacks.