Authorities have confirmed a chilling connection between the Brown University shooting and the murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, both carried out by a Portuguese national with shared academic roots. The suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, took his own life in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, ending a multi-day manhunt.
The link stems from their time at Lisbon's Instituto Superior Técnico in the late 1990s, where both men studied physics. This revelation has stunned the academic world, as details emerge about the apparent targeted attacks separated by just two days and 50 miles.
The Brown University Shooting
On Saturday, 13 December, a gunman dressed in dark clothing entered the Barus and Holley engineering building at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. During a pre-finals review session, he opened fire, killing two students—Ella Cook from Birmingham, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a freshman from Uzbekistan studying medicine—and injuring nine others.
The university immediately cancelled all classes and exams. Neves Valente, a former physics graduate student at Brown from fall 2000 to spring 2001 and withdrew in 2003, had no ongoing ties to the school. Investigators identified him through video surveillance, a rented Nissan Sentra traced to a Massachusetts facility, and hotel records.
Brown President Christina H. Paxson remarked that Neves Valente likely knew the building well from his time as a student, where most physics classes were held.
The Murder of Professor Nuno Loureiro
On Monday, 15 December, approximately 50 miles away in Brookline, Massachusetts, Loureiro was shot multiple times at the entrance to his condominium around 8:30pm local time. Neighbours heard gunshots and called police. The 47-year-old, born in Viseu, Portugal, was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries the next morning.
Loureiro held positions as professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics, and directed MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, advancing fusion energy research.
Loureiro leaves behind his wife and three children. Initially, the FBI saw no link to the Brown shooting, but vehicle and other forensic evidence soon connected the cases.
Unravelling the Portuguese Connection
The bridge between the crimes is Neves Valente and Loureiro's overlapping years at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) in Lisbon, where they attended the same programme from 1995 to 2000.
FBI Legal Attache in Lisbon confirms the Brown shooting suspect and the MIT professor Nuno Loureiro shared five years of study at the same Portuguese university between 1995 and 2000.
— Raw Reporting (@Raw_Reporting) December 19, 2025
Loureiro graduated in 2000, shortly after Neves Valente was dismissed from a monitor role in February that year. Both men went on to specialise in physics, with Loureiro becoming a leading plasma researcher.
Neves Valente, who arrived in the US on a student visa and gained permanent residency in 2017, lived in Miami and had no US criminal history. Authorities, including FBI Special Agent Ted Docks, stated: 'It is believed that in Lisbon that those two individuals attended the same university in Portugal.' While motive is not yet established, investigators believe it was personal, with no indications of terrorism. On X, Fox News detailed how authorities linked Neves Valente to both scenes through DNA, fingerprints, and rental car surveillance.
BREAKING: Authorities say Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente carried out the Brown University attack and is also responsible for the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts. pic.twitter.com/5qTfOpRn3m
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 19, 2025
With Neves Valente deceased, the manhunt is over. Yet the Portuguese connection raises ongoing questions. As of 19 December 2025, probes into potential deeper motives persist, while Brown and MIT communities grieve the losses and reflect on campus safety measures.
