Suspect in Brown & MIT Shootings Found Dead in NH Storage Unit

The sprawling manhunt for the gunman responsible for the deadly shootings at Brown University and the targeted killing of an MIT professor has ended with the discovery of the suspect’s body in New Hampshire. Law enforcement officials confirmed late Thursday that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a self-storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.
Valente, identified as a Portuguese national and a legal permanent resident (Green Card holder) of the United States, was the sole suspect in a week-long violent spree that gripped New England. Authorities believe he is responsible for the attack on a Brown University lecture hall last Saturday, which left two students dead and nine wounded, as well as the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday.
“We are 100% confident that this is our target,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. Investigators revealed that Valente and Professor Loureiro were known to each other, having studied in the same physics program in Portugal in the late 1990s. Valente was also a former graduate student in physics at Brown University from 2000 to 2001, providing a clear link to both institutions targeted in the attacks.
The breakthrough in the case came after detectives tracked a rental vehicle used by the suspect. Police stated that Valente had employed “counter-surveillance measures,” including swapping the license plates on his rental car to avoid detection as he traveled between Providence and the Boston area. A tip from a witness eventually led authorities to the Extra Space Storage facility in Salem, near the Massachusetts border.
When an FBI SWAT team breached the storage unit on Thursday evening, they found Valente deceased. Inside the unit and the vehicle, agents recovered two firearms and a satchel that matched evidence from the Brown University crime scene. While the manhunt is over, the investigation into Valente’s motive—specifically why he chose to strike now, decades after his academic connections to the victims—remains ongoing.