8 Shocking Details Linking Brown University, MIT Killings

An individual was identified. as Claudio Neves Valente. Date of birth. and he was a 48-year-old man. He was a Brown student. He was a Portuguese national. and his last known address was in Miami, Florida. After an intense 5-day manhunt, authorities say the suspected Brown. University shooter is dead. And not only. that, he is also, according to them, for. the killing of that MIT professor. [music]. out in Massachusetts just days later. We.

have all the details from law. enforcement [music] as we try to make. sense of this wild development and also. ask, where does the investigation. [music]. go from here? Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. Let me tell you something. You think the. crime stories I cover are scary? Wait. until you hear what's happening with. your personal data online. Your name, your phone number, your address, it's. all out there. It's easy for anybody to. find. The good news, our sponsor. Incogni, helps you disappear online.

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Sidebar for 60% off an annual plan. We. are 100% confident that this is our. target. um and that this case uh is closed from. a from a perspective of pursuing people. involved. >> It was quite the night Thursday night. with local, state, federal authorities. in Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts announcing that the. suspect in the Brown University shooting. is dead. The shooting that took place on. Saturday, December 13th resulted in the. deaths of two people, students Ella.

Cook, Muhammad Aziz Umarzokov, and. wounded nine others. It has also been. confirmed that the shooter too is. responsible for the shooting of MIT. Professor Nuno Loureiro, a professor of. nuclear science and engineering and. physics. He was killed 2 days later at. his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. There was initial reporting that. suggested that the same person was. responsible or connected to both of. these incidents and now you have. authorities confirming this. The. suspected shooter has been identified as. 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio.

Neves Valente. He was found dead in a. New Hampshire storage facility late. Thursday night. It was a massive scene, law enforcement, weapons drawn, they. stormed the facility not knowing, by the. way, whether or not Valente was armed or. dangerous or if he was in there at all. The feds actually got a warrant for that. storage unit because they believed it. was linked to the suspect. And once they. got inside, they found Valente dead. And. it's believed that he died from a. self-inflicted gunshot wound. So, when. it comes to the details of how they.

found him and his movements, I want to. get into that. So, first we go to this. Providence, Rhode Island press. conference, okay? It happened Thursday. night. It was delayed for several hours. and this is the initial explanation of. how they found the suspected killer. This is from Providence Police Chief. Oscar L. Perez Jr. A person of interest. was identified from that video footage. The person of interest was observed on. Hope Street turning onto Waterman Street. and that was one of the first videos. that we released. We looked at the video.

footages and in this specific incident, it was actually a video. that provided us with a description of a. vehicle. that was corroborated. through a tip that was received. to the tip center. That room was packed. with detectives, agents receiving calls. on a daily basis. We started early and. left late. And Flock and the LPR was able to.

provide us. with this description of this vehicle. That vehicle was picked up by Flock. which led us to a car rental place. in Massachusetts. >> [snorts]. >> Through that, the agents and their work. as well were able to get us footage. of this individual. as well as a copy of the agreement which. provided his real name. The video of that subject matched the. description.

of that person of interest that this. police department. was desperate to put handcuffs on. And. then also Thursday night, we had this. other press conference out of. Massachusetts. We got more details from. the US Attorney for the District of. Massachusetts, Leah Foley, who basically. said that this guy is connected to both. tragedies at Brown University and the. MIT professor's death. This evening at. approximately 9:00 p.m., federal agents. breached a storage locker in Salem, New. Hampshire in search of Claudio Neves.

Valente, a Portuguese national we. believed shot and killed two Brown Brown. University students and an MIT professor. in Brookline, Massachusetts. Neves. Valente studied at Brown University in. Providence, Rhode Island on an F1 visa. around 2000 to 2021. He eventually obtained legal permanent. resident status. Previously, he attended the same. academic program as the MIT Professor.

Nuno Loureiro in Portugal between 1995. and 2000. Although Neves Valente appeared to. reside in Florida between November 26th. and November 30th of this year, he. rented a hotel room in Boston. On. December 1st, he rented a gray Nissan. Sentra with Florida plates from a car. rental agency in Boston. That same day, he drove to the vicinity. of Brown University where his car was.

observed intermittently between December. 1st and December 12th. On December 13th, Neves Valente entered. an auditorium on Brown University's. campus during a study session and began. shooting at students, killing Ella Cook and Muhammad Aziz. Umarzokov, and injuring nine others. Between December 13th and December 14th, Neves Valente returned to Massachusetts. On December 15th, he murdered MIT.

Professor Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro's. home in Brookline, Massachusetts. At some point while he was in. Massachusetts, he switched the plates on. the Nissan Sentra to an unregistered. plate out of Maine. Immediately following Professor. Loureiro's murder, Neves Valente drove. to a storage facility in Salem, New. Hampshire where he had rented a storage. unit in November of this year. Investigators. identified the vehicle that he had.

rented in Boston and then drove to Rhode. Island. And he was seen in the vehicle. was seen outside of Brown and there was. security footage that see. that showed a person who resembled him. There was online There was financial. investigations that were going on in the. background that linked him not only to. that car, but also to the hotels that he. had rented. And. the cars the car that he had used to not.

only drive to Rhode Island, but then. back to Boston. And then there was a. security footage that captured him. within a half mile of uh the professor's. residence in Brookline. And. there is a video footage of him entering. an apartment building in the location of. the professor's apartment. And then. later that evening, he is seen about an. hour later entering the storage unit. wearing the same clothes that he had.

been seen wearing right after the. murder. Now, something else that I have. to expand on, too. There are two major. breakthroughs when it came to. identifying the shooter. You have this. Brown University custodian who. apparently told investigators he saw. this suspicious person wearing a mask, wearing the same kind of clothes as was. seen in these released surveillance. videos and photos, which we talked about. on a previous sidebar, that this person. walked with a limp. Investigators took a. look at the footage from December 1st.

They see this person. Number two, Reddit. Some anonymous person posted on. the Providence Reddit board that they. saw the suspect walking in the area, flagged that his vehicle was in the area. as well. The Reddit post read, "I'm. being dead serious, the police need to. look into a gray Nissan with Florida. plates, possibly a rental." So, authorities look at the footage, they. apparently saw a car that was consistent. with the Reddit user's description. The. pieces come together, that car ends up.

being the same car that Neves Valente. rented. And just to note, it turns out. that a person may have been somebody who. crossed paths with the suspect. You may. have seen authorities saying that they. wanted to talk to this specific person. who was quote in proximity to this. person of interest, the suspect. There. was also reporting that the suspect got. into some sort of altercation with. someone prior to the shootings, ran. away. And it is shocking, his apparent. connection to both crimes, right? Over. the course of 2 days, authorities claim. that the shooter opened fire in Brown.

University and then goes to. Massachusetts and kills this professor. So, this is what investigators have. confirmed that Valente had attended. Brown for three semesters. He was this. graduate student, studied physics, but. at the time of the shooting, to be. clear, he had reportedly no affiliation. with the university, just this tie from. about 25 years ago. He was only enrolled. with Brown University from 2000 to 2001. and then withdrew in 2003. We learned. that during the period of 1995 to 2000,

Valente had attended the same academic. program as Loureiro, the MIT professor. who was killed. This was in Portugal. Now, to be clear, no motive has been. established. It's still really unclear. why he would open fire at Brown. University, what any ill will he may. have had, again, what his connection is. to this MIT professor, what ill will he. might have had towards him. But, you. have a physics professor, you have. Valente who studied physics, you have. physics studies usually held in the. Barus and Holley classrooms where the. shooting took place. Brown University.

President Christina Paxson said it was. safe to assume that this suspect, Valente, as a graduate student in. physics, probably had been in that. building before. And here's something. else I got to mention. When you watched. this Providence presser with local, state, and federal authorities, it wasn't just about the suspect. It. wasn't just about explaining him and the. circumstances of his death and tracking. and all that. It was also a bit. defensive. It was about defending. themselves, it seems, explaining their. actions because there has been a.

spotlight on them for the past few days. There has been a lot of questions about. the length of the manhunt. Why was a. different person of interest initially. detained and then released? Did that. delay the investigation? The apparent. lack of cameras in the university's. building where the Brown shooting. occurred. So, what you're going to hear. right now is this back and forth with. President Paxson and also police chief. Perez. Take a listen. There were no. cameras in this building. And law enforcement, some of that.

standing up behind you, have said if. Brown had cameras in that part of the. building, we would have gotten this guy. And it may have stopped the swirling. action. Can you answer that question for me? Well, I I don't think we have said the. locations of cameras at at Brown. We. have. >> There's no cameras in the building. >> We have We have because why would they. take it from a rental car agency? We. have 1,200 cameras at Brown. >> But not in that building. We have some. in that building. It's a large complex.

And I think what you would see is the. video evidence in this case, from my. perspective, I'm not law enforcement. agent, has been incredibly helpful. Yes, video played a big role in this case. The neighbor's video, the rental car. video, but not the video from the. building that he walked in freely both. before when he got in a confrontation. and when he came back in decided to kill. people. You didn't have cameras in that. building. Just say it so we can get this. over with. And my my next question, will.

you put cameras in the. >> Will you put the cameras in the. building? Will there be more cameras in that. building? Yeah, you know, I I think we. need to look back. We'll look at. everything that is done, but I do not. think a lack of cameras in that building. it had anything to do with what happened. there. And we will go forward. >> If you hadn't focused on the wrong. person of interest [clears throat]. on day one, do you think the professor. in Massachusetts would still be alive? Well, I from the beginning I've told you. that these investigations has extremely.

extremely complex. and intense. And so, we used every. resource as soon as we responded to the. call. I stated earlier, I'm proud of the. men and women of this department. Yes, we did find somebody that we thought. obviously was the person, but we. continued on. We continued on. investigating, we continued on. canvassing the areas, we continued on. with video. Uh and that's why we ended up where. we're at now. I also have to mention. this, there was this idea that Valente. was quite sophisticated in avoiding. police. That Valente not only obscured.

his appearance, but he reportedly used. an untraceable phone, that he didn't use. credit cards in his own name, that he. apparently used European SIM cards so it. would be difficult to follow him, track. him. That he possibly used a fake. license plate, switched it out. And by. the way, authorities indicated no. criminal record they know of as of right. now. They haven't been able to uncover. one so far. This is a guy who originally. was on a student visa, our. understanding, but then in 2017, he. apparently entered the United States. through the diversity lottery immigrant. visa program and was issued a green.

card. That's a program where apparently. thousands of immigrants can come into. the United States every year from places. where there are lower rates of. immigration. And I will tell you, in the. wake of all this, United States. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi. Noem announced that the administration. is pausing the DVI program in the wake. of all this. Now, a lot of these details. have been confirmed through an unsealed. federal complaint and an FBI affidavit. In a sense, it seems to reassure the. public that Valente is the guy. That. he's the one responsible, that he has.

been identified, that he was acting. alone, that he's now dead. But, obviously, there are still so many. unanswered questions. And we wonder, will we ever get answers? Motive, planning, activities, anybody connected. to him in any way, what has he been up. to during the last few days? Where does. the investigation go from here? I mean, it's been reported that this is an. ongoing investigation and they have to. test and analyze so much of the evidence. that they found so far. For example, investigators reportedly recovered 44.

spent 9 mm shell casings, one unfired. cartridge casing, and numerous. projectiles and projectile fragments. There were also apparently 15 spent. shell casings that were found in the. Barus and Holley hallway, 29 spent. casings in an auditorium. Investigators. apparently found magazines, too. So, there seems to be a lot more that they. need to look into and test. Okay, let me. bring on right now retired FBI agent. Colin L. Schmitt, who's also the. president CEO of Kronos Litigation.

Experts. Got to start here, Colin. Is this the typical profile? Is this who. you would think would commit not only a. shooting at Brown University, but. essentially assassinating a MIT. professor? It's such an. weird change of events. I All I can say on this one is it's a. wow. I mean, this is something. where truth is stranger than fiction is. this is example of that. Because. as the investigators go through, they're. going to have to find some sort of. catalyst for.

uh what happened at Brown. Not. necessarily. the the MIT one. It There seems to be. some hypothesis coming out that there. was some sort of dispute or he had some. issue with the professor. But, to go. over to Brown and execute those. children, frankly, it just doesn't make. any sense. Yeah, there's a lot of weird parts about. this. And you're seeing a connection here, right? You're seeing this physics. connection that he attended the the same. program at the same time with the. physics professor. It's still not clear.

what the relationship would be. But, there's also a And again, it has I said. this before, there doesn't appear to be. a criminal record at this point of time. Yet, there's a level of sophistication. that he was able to elude law. enforcement. Well, I I don't necessarily think it was. sophistication. I think there you know, there's an old. saying in law enforcement, there's no. such thing as a coincidence. But, the. fact that it's already been widely. reported that Brown's video surveillance.

was lacking in terms of the rooms and. and what was going on. And then eluding. law enforcement, I think it may have. been just in this case a little bit of. luck on his part that his timing was. good, that he was able to evade law. enforcement. But, fortunately, you had. the the FBI and other law enforcement. agencies get involved and they were able. to make that connection. Well, while. they say, you know, the. the European SIM cards, the. fake maybe the fake credit cards, license plate switching it up, concealing his identity. They did. apparently get a lot of photographs of.

him from that rental car place. So, there just did seem to be something that. slipped up and they were able to. ultimately track him to the storage. facility. Do you think that those were. certain aspects that made him hard to. detect? And I do wonder if they're. looking into whether or not he had any. help. Although, it doesn't seem that. they're suggesting that anyone else was. involved. Well, certainly those efforts on his. part made it harder for him to detect. But, when you have a army of very very. sophisticated law enforcement officers. and agents and agencies, they were able.

to kind of. uh separate the wheat from the chaff and. identify him and be able to to lock him. down and make the connection between the. two violent crimes. So, certainly there was intent there. because of all those things. And I I just once again, it was. good old-fashioned police work that were. able to identify this guy and, you know, stop his next crime cuz it it appears he. wasn't going to stop. What do they do to. look more into him right now?

Well, like we said, I think we've. mentioned this on every single episode, social media is the first step. And then. they're going to interview. all of his associates and family. members. And I would expect, if it. hasn't happened already, there has been. a search warrant at the last place he. lived. And they're just going to. basically put together a timeline. because you hit the nail on the head, did he have help? Was there somebody. assisting him and or was there somebody. that was aware that he had this intent. and didn't do anything to stop him? Authorities said they had his name the. day before. Should they have released it.

sooner or do you think that could have. endangered the investigation? I think it would have endangered the. investigation cuz it sounds to me like. they were putting the pieces together. And if they had done that, they would. have tipped them off. And then law. enforcement would have been walking into. a confrontation with an armed suspect. who knew they were coming. So, it's. possible that he had an intent to harm. himself already. And with that intent, he may have. been waiting for law enforcement if they.

had identified him. before, then his intent to harm himself. may have also led to him harming law. enforcement officers. Do you think the. circumstances of his death are are. different or strange or unique? I mean, there are times you cover shootings like. this and the suspect's killed by law. enforcement immediately. Or, like you. said, there could be a situation where. they harm themselves. This was interesting. You know, several. days later found in the storage.

facility. Are you surprised by that? Not surprised. by that? Given the fact that maybe maybe he felt. that the. you know, the the heat was on him. Well, I not surprised. I think being. found in a storage unit is unusual. Usually it's a hotel room or a car where. these types of criminals are found. I. think though there was a very high. probability of him getting involved in. some sort of violent action with law.

enforcement. So unfortunately this may. have been the best possible outcome in. terms of bringing him to justice, you. know, because I think that he was very. heavily armed and I would I just shudder. to think about what would have happened. to those cops when they were going in to. get him. Do you have confidence that we. will have answers to all of these. questions about motive, planning, activities, conversations? Because there. are cases where yeah, where we learn a. little bit more about it. And then. there's cases we don't. Like I still. don't even think we really understand.

the loss of Vegas shooting all these. years later. So a couple questions I. have for you. A, do you feel confident. that they're going to do a thorough. investigation? B, what does that look. like? Do they prepare a report? Do they. hold a press conference at the end of. the day? Who takes the lead? And I guess. C, do you think you're going to we're going. to get answers? A, they are going to do. a thorough investigation because they. have to determine if there's anybody. else involved. Because their their. number one priority at this point now is. to determine if there is still a threat. to the community. The B is are we going.

to get all of our answers to to our. questions? Absolutely not. I don't think. that ever will happen because the the. social media world there'll always be. more questions and there'll always be. conspiracy theories. And in terms of. them releasing information to the. public, yes, I think at some point they. will say that he acted alone. He was the. lone a person involved and responsible. for this. And then there's going to be. some sort of after action report. especially at Brown to determine how. they can harden up their security. Mhm. Mhm. Well, that goes now to the.

larger question. I mentioned this. before. It seemed to me a big theme of. that Providence, Rhode Island press. conference was defending themselves. after they'd been in the spotlight for. so long. Do you think that they are. facing unfair criticism? Or do you. think, you know, this is a five-day. manhunt. He could have been caught. sooner. This could have been prevented. What are your thoughts on it? When. somebody's life is lost, there's no such. thing as unfair criticism, especially in. a case like this. It is what it is and.

unfortunately the people in charge have. to stand up there and take the fire, so. to speak, because children, these are. kids that were killed and they were. killed on a college campus and there was. certainly some sort of expectation that. there should have been some level of. security there and they may have been. there. We don't know the whole story and. how secure that facility was. And your. description of them having that press. conference or or seeing it and where. they were defending themselves, that's a. normal human reaction. However, like I. said, it is what it is. You're going to.

be criticized whenever there's a. situation like this and any criticism is. fair because people died. By the way, Colin, how does testing work with. forensics, right? The ballistic testing, DNA testing, cuz that's all going to be. happening now behind the scenes, right? How does that work? Well, they have to have something to. test first of all. So obviously the. firearms, it's likely they'll go to the. FBI lab. Uh. depending on which is the best lab, either that lab or the lab in Rhode. Island. And then if there is any other.

things to test in terms of DNA to make. sure that he was the only one that. interacted with instruments of the. crime. And then they'll probably take a. look at him, his body, as well to see. what kind of trauma may have sparked. this madness. Because now since he has. passed, the number one objective is, okay, what can we do. as in terms of government agencies to. make sure this never happens again. Lot. of questions. Lot of questions. I'm. hoping we get the answers. Very strange. development. Colin L. Schmidt, thank you.

so much. Really appreciate it. And let. me just say this, at the end of the day. we talk so much about the suspect. We. talk so much about the investigation, which we should, but we can't forget the. victims. We can't forget the people who. died. We can't forget the people who. were harmed, who were wounded, the. families who've been affected, because. they need answers, too, as to what. happened here. So Colin L. Schmidt, thank you so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. And that's all. we have for you right now here on. Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much. for joining us. And as always, please. subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast,

Spotify, wherever you should get your. podcast. You can follow [music] me on X. or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time.