Shootings Suspect Killed Himself Tuesday: Autopsy

The body of Claudio Neves Valente was found Thursday in a storage unit
Posted Dec 20, 2025 1:12 PM CST
Shootings Suspect Killed Himself Tuesday: Autopsy
This image provided by Providence Police Dept. shows surveillance images of Claudio Neves Valente, a suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University.   (Providence Police Dept. via AP)

The man suspected in the fatal shootings at Brown University and MIT killed himself days before police discovered his body in a New Hampshire storage unit, authorities said. An autopsy determined that 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced Friday. The autopsy and other evidence indicate he died on Tuesday, Fox News reports; his body was found two days later when officers breached the storage unit where he was hiding.

Neves Valente had been identified by police as the gunman in the Dec. 13 attack at Brown's Barus & Holley Engineering Building during finals week, which killed students Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia and injured nine others. Authorities later tied him to the Dec. 15 killing in Massachusetts of MIT nuclear science professor Nuno Loureiro, who was found shot at his home in Brookline. Federal agents recovered two 9mm handguns near Neves Valente's body; forensic testing linked one to the Brown shooting and the other to Loureiro's death, according to the ATF.

So far, authorities say they have found no writings or other material that explain a motive. Officials said Friday that forensic teams were still processing evidence, including firearms, recovered in New Hampshire, per ABC News. They intend to compare it with ballistic and DNA evidence from the Providence shootings. Several survivors of the Brown shooting remain hospitalized.

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