Man who killed Brown University students and MIT professor left recordings

The man identified by law enforcement as the shooter who killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor recorded videos saying he had been planning the attack for at least six semesters, according to information released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead in a New Hampshire warehouse after killing two students and injuring nine others in an engineering building on December 13 and, two days later, killing MIT professor Nuno FG Loureiro in his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

Justice Department officials said Tuesday that during the search of the warehouse where Neves Valente’s body was found, the FBI recovered an electronic device containing a series of short videos made by Neves Valente after the shooting.

In the recordings, the shooter admits in Portuguese that he “had been planning the Brown University shooting for a long time,” according to a press release. He did not give a motive for targeting Brown or the MIT professor, with whom he attended school in Portugal decades ago.

He said he felt he had no reason to apologize and wanted to “leave on his own terms”. He also complained in the videos that he was injured in the eye during the shooting.

“I’m not going to apologize because in my lifetime no one has sincerely apologized to me,” he said.

Neves Valente, who police say died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said his “only goal was to leave more or less” on his “own terms” and to make sure he “wouldn’t be the one who ended up suffering the most from all of this.”

“No, that can’t happen. So if you don’t like it, tough luck,” he said.

In the recording, he said he had the storage space where her body was found for about three years.

Informed by a witness

Neves Valente also mentioned his confrontation with a witness at Brown University that ultimately led to his identification days later.

Officials say the man had several meetings with Neves Valente before the attack and, after seeing the released images of the shooter, asked the FBI to investigate “possibly a gray Nissan rental.”

Until then, the police affidavit said authorities had not linked any vehicles to the shooting.

Neves Valente said in the recording that the witness saw his license plate and that police “confronted” him about the shooting.

“Honestly, I never thought it would take them this long to find me,” he said.

Neves Valente said he has neither hate nor love for the United States, where he first arrived about 25 years ago to study physics in Brown’s graduate program before leaving in the spring of 2001.

Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa. He was finally granted legal permanent resident status in September 2017. His last known residence was in Miami.

“It’s the same with Portugal and most places I’ve been,” he said, later adding that “I’ve been here without worrying about it for a very long time now.”