A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University on December 13 has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility where he had rented a unit, officials said on Thursday.
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference.
Two people were killed and nine were wounded in the mass shooting on Saturday at Brown University.
Perez said as far as investigators know, the suspect acted alone.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001.
Suspect Also Allegedly Killed MIT Professor
Investigators believe Neves Valente is responsible for both the shooting at Brown and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who was fatally shot in his Brookline home Monday, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said.
"It was in the last 24 to 48 hours that, my understanding, like, according to my understanding, is when the link began to be established," she added.
The investigation had shifted on Thursday when authorities said they were looking into a connection between the Brown mass shooting and an attack two days later near Boston that killed 47-year-old MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.
Neves Valente and Loureiro attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, Foley said.
Foley said investigators identified the vehicle Neves Valente rented in Boston and drove in Rhode Island. That vehicle was seen outside of Brown University.
Foley said after leaving Rhode Island for Massachusetts, the suspect stuck a Maine license plate over the rental car’s plate to help conceal his identity.
"We haven't figured out now where he got that plate from. It was an unregistered plate in Maine. We have information that that plate was a very old plate that, had been taken out of, the registration status over a decade ago," she said.
Foley also said Neves Valente was "sophisticated in hiding his tracks, including using a phone that made it difficult to determine his location, and credit cards that were not linked to his name.
Trump Suspends Green Card Lottery Program
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente obtained legal permanent residence status in 2017, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the United States, many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected, including spouses of the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery.