He was identified in an affidavit (attached at the bottom of this news article), and signed Thursday in Rhode Island as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown University student and a national of Portugal, whose last known address was in Miami, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said at a press conference. His body was found in a storage unit in New Hampshire, the New York Times reports, citing senior law enforcement officials.
Officials at a press conference Thursday night said that Valente was enrolled as a student at Brown University in Fall 2000 and Spring 2001, but took a leave of absence in April 2001. He formally withdrew in July 2023.
Officials said that as a student, Valente spent a "great deal of time" in the Barus and Holley building, where he carried out last Saturday's shooting, as a PhD student in physics.
On Thursday, a judge signed an arrest warrant for Valente, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at the press conference. "There won't be prosecution now," he added, noting that the affidavit in support of the warrant had been posted online.
The affidavit, he said, will “give you a sense of the work that went into this by the line prosecutors and the line agents and detectives from the agencies that work so well together.”
Law enforcement officials believe that Valente is linked to the shooting at the Ivy League university last Saturday, and the killing of Nuno Loureiro, an MIT professor shot dead in his Brookline, Mass. home two days later.
The two incidents were linked by a car apparently rented by Valente, officials said Thursday night.
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