Authorities say the man suspected of carrying out Saturday’s deadly shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, has been found dead in New Hampshire, bringing an end to a five-day manhunt that gripped the campus and the surrounding community.
The suspect is also believed to have fatally shot MIT physics professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States, on Monday, according to Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, who authorities say died by suicide.
His body was discovered Thursday evening inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, United States, with firearms found beside him.
Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said Valente was a former Brown University student and a Portuguese national who was last known to be living in Miami, Florida, United States.
Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed that Valente attended the Ivy League school in Providence from 2000 to 2001, where he studied physics. Authorities also disclosed that Valente and Loureiro previously attended the same school in Portugal.
Investigators said the case broke open Wednesday night after a tip led them to a vehicle connected to the suspect. That discovery brought detectives to a Massachusetts-based car rental company, where surveillance images of Valente and paperwork containing his real name were recovered.
Confirmation that police had caught up with the shooter brought relief to many students and residents in Providence, who had endured days of fear and uncertainty as the investigation struggled to gain traction.
“Tonight our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little easier,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.
On the day of the shooting, authorities released initial surveillance images of a man believed to be linked to the attack and announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to his identification and arrest.
Investigators initially focused on another “person of interest” on Sunday but later cleared and released him. Police continued combing streets near the Providence campus, forming search lines and brushing aside newly fallen snow in search of evidence.
Additional surveillance footage and maps were released later in the week, showing the suspect walking around the Brown University campus area hours before and after the shooting.
The attack occurred at about 4 p.m. Saturday at Barus and Holley Hall, inside a stadium-style classroom where students had gathered for an economics review session ahead of final exams.
The building houses Brown’s engineering school and physics department. Paxson said Valente would have spent a significant amount of time in the building during his time as a student.
Students in the classroom described hearing gunshots before a masked man rushed in and began firing.
Two students, Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed.
Cook, who was from Birmingham, Alabama, United States, served as vice president of Brown’s College Republican Club. Her obituary described her as having “a heart as big as the sun” and noted that she demonstrated a form of “silent leadership,” as described by her brother Hooker.
She was known for “her persistent courage in following both heart and conscience” and for her wide range of interests. Cook enjoyed spending time with friends, babysitting, teaching Bible classes and pursuing her studies at Brown, where she was majoring in French and Mathematics-Economics.
She was remembered at the Cathedral Church of the Advent as “an incredible, grounded, faithful, bright light,” both at home and within the Brown community.
Alabama Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth wrote on X that Cook “represented the very best of Alabama. A bright future was ended much too soon.”
Umurzokov, a naturalized U.S. citizen, immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2011. The U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan said it was mourning “the loss of a ‘bright future.’”
Freshman Shane Toomey said Umurzokov dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon and had a deep passion for learning. H
He said Umurzokov attended the economics review session simply out of curiosity, despite not being enrolled in the class.
“He could hold a conversation with anybody about just about anything and then pivot to something entirely different,” Toomey told Ocean State Media. Umurzokov, he added, seemed “to be friends with every single person you walk by on a campus of thousands of people.”
In the aftermath of the shooting, Brown University announced the cancellation of all remaining in-person exams for the fall semester, saying the decision was taken to “focus our efforts on providing care and support to the members of our community” and to “grapple with the sorrow, fear and anxiety that is impacting all of us right now.”
