Claudio Valente, the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting, was “socially awkward” and “complained about moving to the United States," his former classmate said.
Scott Watson, who earned his PhD in physics from the Ivy League university in 2005, said that he took classes and became close with Valente, who police said died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New Hampshire on Thursday. Valente was enrolled at the school between 2000 and 2003.
“During his time at Brown, I was essentially his only friend,” Watson told The Independent. “He was socially awkward, and so was I, which I think is why we connected.”
Watson said that he first met Valente, who is from Portugal, during their orientation, when he spotted the now-deceased man sitting alone.
“He often complained about moving to the United States and about the university,” Watson, a physics professor at Syracuse University, said. “He would say the classes were too easy—honestly, for him they were. He already knew most of the material and was genuinely impressive. I remember him getting irritated about the quality of food on campus, especially the lack of high-quality fish.”
He said that he would go out to dinner with Valente at a Portuguese restaurant in Providence, adding that he “could be kind and gentle.” Equally, though, Valente sometimes grew frustrated “about courses, professors, and living conditions.”
Watson also said he recalled Valente making derogatory comments about a fellow classmate from Brazil.
“Claudio would insult and call him his slave,” Watson said. “I had to break up a fight once.”
“The last time I spoke with him, we walked to his apartment and I tried to convince him not to leave,” Watson said. “He refused, and that was the last time I heard from him. He told me he was returning to Portugal, though it now appears that may not have been the case.”
The mass shooting at Brown University on Saturday left two people dead and nine others injured. Valente is also suspected of killing an MIT professor at his home in Brookline, New Hampshire, two days later.
Police said they were able to track down Valente thanks, in part, to a Reddit poster, who claimed to have seen Valente shortly before the shooting.
The Reddit user, referred to in legal documents as “John,” crossed paths with the alleged shooter in the campus bathroom. He said his clothing was not appropriate for the weather and thought he appeared suspicious. He later reported the incident to the authorities.
“He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said when discussing the tipster, who reportedly was homeless and resided inside the college building where the shooting took place.
Using surveillance footage and car rental records, police eventually located Valente in New Hampshire. Law enforcement found his body inside of a storage unit in Salem on Thursday. An autopsy determined he had been dead for two days when his body was discovered, New Hampshire’s attorney general said Friday.
It’s unclear what motivated the two fatal attacks.
