PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) — The man suspected in a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was in the same academic program as the professor from Portugal before attending Brown on a student visa.
Claudio Neves Valente was once a promising physics student, but he dropped out of Portugal’s top engineering school, the Instituto Superior Técnico, in 2000 and dropped out of a graduate program at Brown University three years later without a degree.
On Thursday, Neves Valente, who immigrated to the U.S. from Portugal, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a warehouse in New Hampshire, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said.
Investigators believe the 48-year-old man is responsible for fatally shooting two students and injuring nine others in a Brown classroom on Dec. 13, wearing the types of pants and shoes a witness said were typical of restaurant workers. Investigators believe that two days later, he killed former classmate Nuno FG Loureiro at his home in suburban Boston, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Providence.
Authorities have not offered a motive, but what is clear is that life did not go the way Neves Valente imagined.
Neves Valente was born in Torres Novas, Portugal, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Lisbon. As a high school student, he competed in a national physics competition in 1994, placing third, according to a Portuguese physics journal. Five of the top finishers went on to compete in an international competition the following year in Australia.
From 1995 to 2000, he was in the same physics program at Lisbon as Loureiro, said federal prosecutor Leah B. Foley. Loureiro graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico in 2000, according to his MIT faculty page. A notice of termination from the then president of the Lisbon university shows that Neves Valente was released from a position at the Instituto Superior Técnico that same year.
Neves Valente came to Brown that fall as a graduate student on a student visa. Brown University President Christina Paxson stated that she took a leave of absence in 2001 and officially retired on July 31, 2003.
During his time at Brown, he only enrolled in physics classes. Paxson said it’s likely he took classes and spent time at the building where this month’s shooting took place because that’s where the vast majority of physics classes are held. However, detailed records indicating where the classes were held do not extend until 2001.
Paxson said Brown found no indication of public safety interactions or other concerns while Neves Valente was a student.
“At this time, we have not identified any employees who remember Neves Valente, nor is there any Brown record of recent contact between this person and Brown,” Paxson said.
After leaving Brown, he eventually obtained lawful permanent resident status in September 2017, Foley said. It was not immediately clear where he stands between taking a leave of absence from school in 2001 and getting his visa in 2017.
His last known address was about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Miami. The yellow house with the red roof is in a working-class neighborhood that has large houses, most with fenced yards and basements.
Some neighbors who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday said they had never seen Neves Valente. No police were in sight.
Edward Pol, a race car mechanic who lives across the street from the house, said the owner rents out some rooms to people. He said he had never spoken to Neves Valente, but had seen him several times, most recently two or three months ago. He said the Portuguese was always busy, sitting outside and making phone calls. She realized the man was the suspect when she saw his pictures on the news Friday morning.
A man who answered the door through a home intercom said he was the homeowner, but declined to identify himself or comment.
While Neves Valente’s life remained a mystery, Loureiro, the murdered physicist and MIT fusion scientist, excelled. Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and was appointed last year to lead the school’s Center for Plasma Science and Fusion, one of its largest laboratories. The 47-year-old scientist from Viseu, Portugal, was working to explain the physics behind astronomical phenomena such as solar flares.
Portugal’s top diplomat said on Friday that the government was surprised by revelations that a Portuguese was the prime suspect. Police in Portugal said they had been contacted by US authorities on Thursday.
There are still “a lot of unknowns” about the motive, said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this class,” he said.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press reporters Barry Hatton and Helena Alves in Portugal, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Matt O’Brien in Providence contributed.