Brown Shooting Suspect Found Dead in New Hampshire Storage Unit

Authorities announced on December 19 that the suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University was found dead inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, ending a six day multi state manhunt that had gripped communities in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Providence police and federal investigators identified the dead man as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national whose most recent known address was in Miami, Florida.

The Brown campus attack late the previous weekend left two students dead and nine others wounded. Police identified the students killed as Ella Cook, 19, a second year student from Birmingham, Alabama who was vice president of the Brown College Republicans chapter, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, an Uzbek American first year student whom officials described as having "a bright future" and ambitions to become a neurosurgeon. Days after the Brown shooting, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was shot and killed in Cambridge, and investigators said the two cases were linked.

Investigators said the connection emerged after campus closed circuit footage and a witness at Brown identified a vehicle tied to the suspect. The same vehicle was later seen near the scene of the MIT professor's shooting, and electronic plate readers tracked the car to Salem where it was located at the storage facility. Valente's body was found in a storage unit he had rented in November, about 80 miles north of Providence, and officials said his death was ruled a suicide. An arrest warrant had been issued before the discovery.

Agents recovered the gray Nissan associated with Valente and said evidence from the car matched material found at the Providence scene. Items recovered from storage units and the vehicle included a satchel and firearms reported by some officials as two 9mm Glock pistols, along with a bulletproof vest and a jacket. Law enforcement agencies on scene included Providence police, U.S. Marshals, New Hampshire State Police, FBI teams and K 9 units. Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez Jr., Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston field office, were among officials involved in the investigation.

Court records show Valente attended Brown in the early 2000s as a Ph.D. student in physics before withdrawing in 2003 after three semesters without earning a degree. Court records also show he entered the United States on a student visa and was granted lawful permanent resident status in 2017. Police have said the Brown and MIT cases are linked in part by a reported connection that the suspect and the MIT victim studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s.

The announcement brought some relief to a tense region. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said residents could "finally breathe a little easier" after the arrest attempt and recovery operation. Federal and local investigators said they will continue to process storage units, the vehicle and other evidence as they work to establish a motive.

The case underscores questions that universities and cities face about campus safety, law enforcement coordination and the use of electronic tracking technology during holiday period emergencies. Officials declined to offer a motive, and investigators said forensic and criminal inquiries will continue in the coming weeks.