Lone suspect behind Brown, MIT attacks driven by perceived injustices, personal grievances, FBI says

Federal investigators have concluded a significant portion of their probe into a mass shooting at Brown University and the murder of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, determining that a Portuguese national acting alone carried out both attacks, driven by personal grievances and perceived injustices he attributed to communities he believed contributed to his failures.

The FBI’s Boston Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced the findings, identifying the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old legal permanent resident from Miami, Florida. Investigators determined his actions had no nexus to terrorism.

Neves Valente opened fire at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Dec. 13, 2025, and two days later killed MIT physics professor Dr. Nuno Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was subsequently found dead in Salem, New Hampshire, where two legally purchased 9mm Glock pistols were recovered with his body — one linked to each attack.

The investigation was among the most intensive in recent memory. According to the FBI, investigators recovered more than 112 pieces of evidence, pursued more than 490 leads, conducted more than 260 interviews, reviewed more than 11,000 surveillance footage files, and analyzed 815 videos and 1,327 audio files found on the shooter’s electronic devices.

Born in Torres Novas, Portugal, Neves Valente arrived in the United States in August 2000 on a student visa to attend Brown University, where he briefly enrolled in a doctoral program before withdrawing in May 2001. He returned to the U.S. in 2017 as a lawful permanent resident and worked briefly as a rideshare driver. At the time of the attacks, he was unemployed and had no criminal record.

The FBI said Neves Valente began planning the Brown University attack in 2022, when he acquired a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, to house his firearms. Following the shootings, he recorded audio and video confessions in which he showed no remorse and offered no explanation for his actions.

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit assessed that Neves Valente’s victims were symbolic — Brown University and Dr. Loureiro represented to him his personal failures and perceived injustices. Investigators said he was driven by an accumulation of long-standing grievances, alongside social isolation, an inflated sense of self, and chronic suicidality.