U.S. authorities have revealed that the man responsible for a series of deadly shootings at Brown University and in a Boston suburb had meticulously planned the attacks for months and left behind a series of confessional videos. The U.S. Department of Justice released new information on Tuesday detailing the findings.
Chilling Confessions Found on Electronic Device
According to the Justice Department, Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown student, was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility on December 18, 2025. This discovery came after a violent rampage that began on December 13, when he killed two students and wounded nine others at an engineering building on Brown's campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Two days later, on December 15, he fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at the professor's home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
During a search of the storage unit, the FBI recovered an electronic device containing short videos recorded by Neves Valente after the shootings. In these recordings, made in Portuguese, the shooter admitted he had been "planning the Brown University shooting for a long time." A transcript provided by officials indicates he had been working out the details for at least six semesters.
No Apology and a Revealing Motive
The videos provided a window into the shooter's mindset but no clear motive for targeting Brown University or Professor Loureiro, whom he had attended school with in Portugal decades earlier. He expressed no remorse for his actions.
"I'm not going to apologize because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me," Neves Valente said in the recordings. He stated his primary objective was to leave on his "own terms" and to ensure he "wouldn't be the one who ended up suffering the most from all this." He dismissively added, "So if you don't like it, tough luck."
He even critiqued his own execution of the murders as "a little incompetent," but concluded, "But at least something was done." He also complained about injuring his eye during the shootings.
The Investigation and Shooter's Background
The investigation gained a critical break thanks to a witness. According to a police affidavit, a witness had several encounters with Neves Valente before the Brown attack. When police released images of a person of interest, the witness took to Reddit, identifying the individual and suggesting authorities look for a possibly rented gray Nissan. Other users urged the witness to contact the FBI, which he did. Up to that point, police had not connected a vehicle to the suspect.
In his videos, Neves Valente referenced this confrontation, noting the witness had seen his license plate. "I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me," he said.
Neves Valente first came to the United States around 25 years ago to study physics in Brown's graduate program, leaving in the spring of 2001. He initially held a student visa and eventually obtained legal permanent resident status in September 2017. His last known residence was in Miami, Florida.
He expressed no strong feelings toward the U.S. or Portugal, stating, "It's the same thing with Portugal, and most of the places where I have been... I've been here without caring for a very long time now." He revealed he had rented the New Hampshire storage space, where his body was later discovered, for about three years.
