Officials detail link between Brown University shooter, killed MIT professor
The man suspected of killing two students at Brown University , then days later, gunning down an MIT professor in Brookline, attended the same academic program as the professor decades ago, prosecutors said.
Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, was identified on Thursday as the shooter in both cases. Investigators linked Neves Valente to both shootings by the car he was driving, which was seen on surveillance at Brown in Rhode Island and near the professor's apartment.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said she believed Neves Valente and MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro , 47, knew each other. Both men were from Portugal and attended a program there together between 1995 and 2000.
But there was no clear motive for either the killings at Brown or the killing of Loureiro, Foley said.
"He was very careful in his communications, and we just don't have any information right now to answer that question [of motive]," she said.
At a press conference late Thursday night, Foley also provided a timeline of his movements across the region, dating back to November.
Neves Valente is seen at a car-rental agency on Nov. 17, 2025, picking up a vehicle. He then rented a hotel room in Boston from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30.
On Dec. 1, Neves Valente went back to the Alamo Rent a Car on Atlantic Avenue in Boston, where he rented a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates that he drove to Brown.
Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente at Alamo rental on Dec. 1.Providence Police Department affidavit
Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 12, the car was seen in and around Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
On Saturday, Dec. 13, Neves Valente opened fire in a building on the Ivy League school's campus while students were in a study session, Foley said. The shooting killed two students — Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov — and left nine injured.
At some point while in Massachusetts, Neves Valente swapped the plates on the car — from the Florida plates seen at Brown to an unregistered plate out of Maine, according to Foley.
Neves Valente killed Loureiro on Dec. 15 in the foyer of Loureiro's Brookline apartment building. Immediately after the murder, Neves Valente drove to a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit that he rented in November.
This undated photo provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in December 2025 shows Nuno Loureiro. (Jake Belcher/MIT via AP)AP
On Thursday, Neves Valente was found dead in an adjacent storage unit with a satchel that matched one he was seen wearing at the time of the shooting at Brown.
The manhunt for Neves Valente stretched across six days. It lasted so long, in part, because Neves Valente "was sophisticated in hiding his tracks," Foley said.
Neves Valente was using a phone that made it difficult for investigators to track him, she said. At the time, he was using a Google phone that investigators couldn't ping in real time and possibly European SIM cards through a U.S. provider that also couldn't be traced. He also had several credit cards not in his name.
"There was financial investigations that were going on in the background that linked him, not only to that car, but also to the hotels that he had rented and ... the car that he had used to not only drive to Rhode Island, but then back to Boston," Foley said.
Neves Valente's last known address was in Miami, Florida. He is a former student at Brown University, who attended the university from 2000 to 2001, Brown University President Christina Paxson said at a separate press conference in Rhode Island.
Neves Valente was in the United States on an F-1 visa, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. In 2017, he applied for and got "lawful resident status," Neronha said.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts filed a criminal complaint under seal on Thursday, charging Neves Valente with transporting a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony with the firearm.
In it, they revealed that a review of ballistics showed that Neves Valente used different guns to carry out the shootings. Officials in Rhode Island said he was found in the storage unit with two guns.
Prosecutors believe Neves Valente had the weapon he used to kill Loureiro with him when he travelled to Brown.
Brown University shooting
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