'They did know each other': Claudio Neves Valente had ties to Brown University and MIT professor decades before deadly shootings

Suspicious links to the recent Brown University shooting and the murder of an MIT professor trace back 30 years and another country, reports the New York Post.

Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, who killed two students at Brown and then two days later an MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, first crossed paths with Loureiro between 1995 and 2000 at Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico, authorities said.




“My understanding is that they did know each other,” said US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley at a Thursday press conference, according to CBS News.

Neves Valente came to the United States on an F-1 student visa in 2000 to enrol in a doctoral programme at Brown University. His time at the Ivy League college was brief. He took a leave of absence in spring 2001 and formally left in July 2003. Officials said he had no current ties to the university.

He obtained lawful US permanent residency in April 2017. In the weeks leading up to the shootings, he rented a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, in November, and a Boston hotel room later that month. Around December 1, he rented a grey Nissan Sentra with Florida plates, which was seen near Brown’s campus multiple times through December 12.

Neves Valente began his attack last Saturday, killing Brown University students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. He also wounded nine others in a classroom. He then changed the car’s license plates and travelled to Brookline on Monday to kill Loureiro at his home.

Neves Valente reportedly remained active and mobile on Thursday before he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot inside the storage facility he had rented, ending a nearly weeklong manhunt.