Former classmates and acquaintances of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, identified as the suspect in the recent Brown University mass shooting and the fatal killing of an MIT professor, describe him as a highly intelligent but at times angry individual, as authorities continue to investigate the motive behind the attacks, reports Baltimore Chronicle via ABC.
Valente, 48, was believed responsible for the shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, which left two students dead and nine injured, as well as the killing of Nuno F.G. Loureiro, an MIT professor, at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Following a dayslong manhunt, Valente was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit in New Hampshire. Police and federal officials have confirmed that the motive remains under investigation.
According to former classmates and his university in Portugal, Valente excelled academically. He was at times friendly and kind, though some remembered him as prone to frustration and occasional anger. Dr. Bruno Nobre, who graduated alongside Valente and Loureiro from Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico in 2000, recalled Valente as a brilliant and sociable student, noting that nothing during their studies suggested he could commit such acts. Nobre also stated that Valente and Loureiro had a typical classmate relationship and were not particularly close.
Valente had been the top student in his graduating physics engineering class at IST, with Loureiro immediately behind him. Loureiro joined MIT’s faculty in 2016, serving in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics and as director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center until his death.
During his time at Brown, which Valente attended from fall 2000 through spring 2001 as a physics graduate student, he displayed signs of frustration with his environment. Scott Watson, now a physics professor at Syracuse University and one of Valente’s few friends at Brown, recalled that Valente was socially awkward and often irritated by aspects of life in the United States, including campus food and the perceived lack of academic rigor.
Watson also recounted an incident where Valente insulted a classmate of Brazilian heritage, prompting Watson to intervene. Valente took a leave of absence from Brown in April 2001 and formally withdrew in 2003. Much of his life after leaving the university remains unclear, though authorities confirmed he obtained permanent residency in April 2017 and was last known to live in Miami.
Earlier we wrote that Brown University shooting: authorities seek individual seen near person of interest.
