The prime suspect in the murders of two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor has been found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, ending a five-day manhunt. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and former Brown student, was discovered in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday night.
Authorities say Valente was responsible for a mass shooting at Brown's engineering building in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday, in which two students were killed and nine others wounded. He then drove to Brookline, Massachusetts, and fatally shot MIT professor Nuno FG Loureiro at his home on Monday. The FBI confirmed the connection between the attacks.
Investigators are still seeking a motive. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said there were 'a lot of unknowns' regarding why Valente targeted the victims. Valente had been enrolled at Brown as a graduate physics student from 2000 to 2001 but had no current affiliation with the university. He and Loureiro had attended the same academic program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.
Valente's body was found in a storage unit he rented, along with a bag, two firearms, and a bulletproof vest. Evidence at the scene matched that from the Providence shooting. Authorities said he had been 'very strategic' in avoiding roads with license plate readers, but those readers ultimately helped locate him. A tipster named 'John' was key in leading investigators to Valente.
The search was hampered by an early assertion by FBI Director Kash Patel that the Brown case was solved after detaining a person of interest, who was later cleared. This led to criticism and calls for Patel's resignation. The authorities denied that the episode delayed the investigation.
