In a chilling sequence of events that shook the academic communities of New England, authorities have pieced together the tragic story behind two deadly shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in December 2025. The suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown graduate student, was ultimately found dead by suicide in a Salem, New Hampshire storage unit, closing a manhunt that spanned multiple states and left three people dead—including Valente himself—and nine others wounded.
The violence began on December 13, 2025, when a masked gunman entered a packed lecture hall inside Brown University’s Barus & Holley engineering building around 4 p.m. According to CBS News, students were participating in an economics final review session when gunfire erupted from the back of the auditorium. The shooter, later identified as Valente, walked down the aisle firing a 9mm handgun, sending students scrambling for cover behind desks and in corners. When the chaos subsided, two students—Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Virginia—were dead. Nine others were wounded, six of whom remained hospitalized days later, with one listed in critical but stable condition.
Authorities recovered numerous 9mm shell casings in the auditorium and adjacent hallway, evidence that would soon help link Valente to another crime. In the immediate aftermath, Providence police and the FBI launched an intensive investigation, but the manhunt was complicated by early misidentifications and the suspect’s careful movements. Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez Jr. acknowledged to CBS News that, “There was a lot of criticism, too, as far as, like, how long has the investigation taken… Sometimes it takes days.”
Just two days after the Brown University shooting, tragedy struck again. On the evening of December 15, MIT professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, a celebrated nuclear physicist and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was found with multiple gunshot wounds in his Brookline, Massachusetts apartment. He died at a hospital the following morning. Loureiro, who had received a presidential award for his research earlier that year, was mourned by colleagues as “not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person,” according to an obituary published by MIT. Dennis Whyte, a colleague, added, “His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world.”
The investigation into Loureiro’s murder quickly revealed a disturbing connection. Both Valente and Loureiro had studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal during the late 1990s. Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, confirmed, “My understanding is that they did know each other.” Valente had briefly enrolled in Brown’s PhD physics program in 2000, attending classes in the very building where the mass shooting occurred, before leaving the university within a year. According to Brown University President Christina Paxson, “The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held at the Barus & Holley classrooms and labs.”
Authorities tracked Valente’s movements using a combination of security footage, financial records, and, crucially, automated license plate readers provided by Flock Safety. As reported by CBS News, these readers helped trace the gray Nissan Sentra Valente rented in Boston—first spotted near Brown University in early December, and later near Loureiro’s Brookline apartment. After the MIT professor’s murder, Valente switched the car’s plates to an unregistered Maine plate and drove to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where he had rented a unit. Security video showed Valente entering the facility about an hour after being seen near Loureiro’s apartment on December 15.
The search for Valente intensified as law enforcement agencies from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire coordinated efforts. The breakthrough came thanks to a tipster known only as “John,” who encountered Valente outside Brown University and later recognized him from police images posted online. John’s detailed posts on Reddit, including descriptions of Valente’s rental car and odd behavior, proved instrumental. As Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told CBS News, “He blew this case right open.” The FBI, which had offered a $50,000 reward for information, has not disclosed whether John will receive the money, citing privacy and the importance of continued public cooperation.
On December 19, authorities found Valente’s body in the Salem storage unit, along with a satchel and two firearms. An autopsy determined he had died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, likely on December 16—just one day after Loureiro’s murder and three days after the Brown shooting. Investigators believe Valente acted alone; “We are 100% confident that this is our target, and that this case is closed from a perspective of pursuing people involved,” Neronha stated. However, the motive remains elusive. “I don’t think we have any idea why now, or why—why Brown? Why these students? Why this classroom? That is really unknown to us,” he added.
The case has sparked heated political debate, particularly over U.S. immigration policy. Valente, a Portuguese national, entered the United States in 2017 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, known as the visa lottery. In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio indefinitely paused the program, stating, “Secretary Rubio has indefinitely paused the issuance of diversity visas until we can be sure we know exactly who we are letting into our country,” as reported by CBS News. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also directed a pause on green card cases under the program, arguing, “The horrific incidents this week demonstrate the threat the diversity visa program poses to American security and safety, which President Trump has long worked to fix.” The program, which provides about 50,000 immigrant visas annually to countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S., is now under intense scrutiny.
As the campuses of Brown and MIT mourn their losses, tributes have poured in for the victims. Brown President Christina H. Paxson remembered Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov as “brilliant and beloved—as members of our campus community, but even more by their friends and families.” Alabama Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth called Cook “a devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama. A bright future was ended much too soon.” Umurzokov, only 18, was helping a friend study for an economics final when he was shot, his sister told CBS News.
In the aftermath, the tragedy has left many questions unanswered—not least, what drove Valente to commit such acts of violence. For now, the communities affected by these senseless killings are left to grieve and search for meaning in the wake of unimaginable loss.
