PROVIDENCE, RI – The intense manhunt for the gunman responsible for the mass shooting at Brown University has ended after a major breakthrough from an unexpected witness.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha announced Thursday that a custodian provided the critical information that allowed investigators to track down 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente. The witness, a Brown University graduate working as a janitor, reportedly gave police the lead they needed to identify the suspect.
The Encounter that Cracked the Case
The investigation shifted when the witness confronted Valente inside a campus building before the shooting. The janitor noticed Valente looked out of place, leading to a brief verbal exchange before the suspect fled.
This interaction allowed the witness to give police a description of the suspect’s vehicle. Investigators then tracked that car to a rental agency in Massachusetts and eventually to a location in New Hampshire.
Suspect Found Dead
Authorities located Valente’s body inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday. Police confirmed he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Valente was a former graduate student in the physics department at Brown University between 2000 and 2001. He is also the primary suspect in the Monday night murder of MIT physics professor Nuno Loureiro. Investigators found that both men had attended the same school in Lisbon, Portugal, though the exact motive for the attacks is still being looked into.
Reward Eligibility
The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the suspect. While the agency hasn’t officially named a recipient, FBI Special Agent Ted Docks said during a press conference that the witness who confronted Valente would “absolutely” be entitled to a portion of that money.
Attorney General Neronha praised the witness, stating he “blew this case wide open” by providing the details that led police directly to Valente’s name.
