The suspect in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University was found dead Thursday night inside a storage unit in southern New Hampshire after an intensive multi-state search, authorities said. Investigators identified him as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and one-time Brown graduate student, and said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officials said Valente was wanted in the fatal shooting of two Brown students and the wounding of nine others during a Saturday attack on the Providence campus. He was also linked to the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro in Brookline two days later. The discovery in Salem ended a nearly weeklong manhunt that involved local police, the FBI and state agencies across Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Authorities said evidence recovered with Valente, including firearms and personal items, tied him to both crime scenes. A motive remains unknown.
Police converged on the Extra Space Storage complex off Hampshire Road in Salem early Thursday evening after investigators traced Valente’s movements through a rented vehicle and surveillance video, officials said. Agents found him inside a unit and pronounced him dead at the scene. “We got him,” said the FBI’s special agent in charge during a late-night briefing, noting that tips from the public and plate-reader hits on a car linked to the suspect had accelerated the search in the last 24 hours. The facility and a surrounding business park were closed off for several hours as bomb technicians and evidence teams worked through the night.
Authorities said Valente had no current affiliation with Brown but studied in the physics department more than two decades ago. Investigators believe he and Loureiro once attended the same program in Portugal before taking separate academic paths. On campus, officials identified the students killed as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, a first-year student from Uzbekistan. Nine others were treated for gunshot wounds after the Saturday attack, which unfolded near academic buildings as students prepared for finals. Providence police said the gunman escaped on foot and into a waiting car.
The investigation threaded through three states. In Providence, detectives mapped cartridge casings and collected video that captured the shooter’s clothing and movements. In Brookline, Massachusetts, police documented a break-in and the fatal shooting of Loureiro inside his home two days later. By midweek, a tipster who recognized Valente from images shared with media provided a name, investigators said, allowing agents to connect a rental car, track plate changes and locate transactions that placed him along the Interstate 93 corridor into New Hampshire. Evidence gathered in Salem included two firearms and a bag matching descriptions from prior scenes, officials said.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said the campus would remain open with increased security and counseling. “We are grieving the loss of two members of our community and supporting those who were injured,” she said. MIT leaders issued a statement honoring Loureiro’s research career and called his death a devastating blow to colleagues and students. In Providence, a memorial of flowers and candles grew near the site of Saturday’s shooting as finals schedules were adjusted and some events were postponed.
Law enforcement agencies said the case is now entering an evidence-driven phase: ballistics comparisons, digital forensics of phones and computers, and a review of interstate travel records. Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island said they would outline findings in coming days, including whether additional crimes were planned or thwarted. The New Hampshire medical examiner will issue a formal ruling on Valente’s cause and manner of death. With the suspect deceased, prosecutors said there will be no criminal proceedings, though victim notifications and public reports will continue.
By early Friday, investigators had released the suspect’s identity, confirmed his death in Salem and said there was no continuing threat to campuses in the region. The next expected update is a briefing on lab results and a more detailed timeline of the suspect’s movements leading up to Thursday night.
Author note: Last updated December 19, 2025.