The individual identified by authorities as the perpetrator who fatally shot two students from Brown University and an MIT professor recorded videos revealing he had been preparing for the attack for at least six semesters, as per a recent disclosure by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday.
Claudio Neves Valente, aged 48, a former student at Brown and a Portuguese citizen, was discovered deceased at a storage facility in New Hampshire following the incidents where he took the lives of two students and injured nine others in an engineering building on December 13. Additionally, he fatally shot MIT Prof. Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, two days later.
Officials from the Justice Department stated that a search of the storage facility where Neves Valente’s body was found led to the recovery of an electronic device containing a series of brief videos made by him post the shootings.
In the recorded videos, the shooter confessed in Portuguese that he had been meticulously planning the Brown University shooting for an extended period. However, he did not disclose a motive for targeting Brown University or the MIT professor, with whom he had studied in Portugal many years ago.
He expressed in the videos that he did not feel the need to apologize and desired to end things on his own terms. Neves Valente also lamented about injuring his eye during the shootings. He stated, “I’m not going to apologize because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me.”
Neves Valente, who authorities confirmed died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, articulated that his sole goal was to depart life on his own accord to avoid being the one who suffered the most from the situation.
Moreover, he mentioned in the recordings that he had rented the storage unit where his body was discovered for approximately three years.
Additionally, Neves Valente referenced an encounter with a witness at Brown University that ultimately led to his identification a few days later. The witness had multiple interactions with Neves Valente before the attack and upon seeing images of the gunman released by officials, he alerted the FBI to investigate a potentially rented gray Nissan.
Up to that point, the police affidavit indicated that authorities had not linked a vehicle to the shooting incident.
Neves Valente disclosed on the recording that the witness had noted his license plate, and law enforcement later questioned him regarding the shooting. He mentioned, “I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me.”
He also stated that he held no strong feelings of hatred or affection towards the United States, where he initially arrived approximately 25 years ago to pursue physics studies in Brown’s graduate program before departing in the spring of 2001. Neves Valente had attended Brown on a student visa and later obtained legal permanent residency in September 2017. His most recent known address was in Miami.
Reflecting on his time spent in various locations, he remarked, “It’s the same thing with Portugal, and most of the places where I have been,” highlighting his detachment from his surroundings.