After an extensive manhunt that lasted five days, a man suspected of opening fire inside a Brown University classroom, killing 2 students and wounding 9, has been found dead.
The Associated Press reported that the suspect was found deceased in a New Hampshire storage facility on Thursday night, according to a law enforcement official.
In a news conference held on Thursday evening, authorities identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student. He was found after the FBI executed search warrants at the storage facility.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told media that authorities are “100% confident” Valente was the shooter and said that guns found at the scene of his death will now be tested for ballistic and DNA evidence.
“We are 100% confident that this is our target and that this case is closed from a perspective of pursuing people involved,” Neronha said at a press conference.
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While authorities believe Valente to be the perpetrator, his motives are still unclear, according to Neronha.
“I don’t think we have any idea why now or why? Why Brown? Why these students? Why this classroom? That is really unknown to us and it may become clear,” he said. “I hope that it does, but it hasn’t as of right now.”
Providence police previously said the suspect opened fire on December 13, on the campus of Ivy League institution Brown University. Surveillance footage showed him on campus grounds the day before.
The gunman started firing inside a classroom at approximately 4 p.m. at the Barus and Holley Engineering building, as students were taking their final exams.
An economics professor told Ocean State Media that the shooting had taken place during a review session for her course, which was being led by her teaching assistant.
“He said that the shooter came in the doors, yelled something — he couldn’t remember what he yelled — and started shooting,” Rachel Friedberg told the outlet. “Students started to scramble to try to get away from the shooter, trying to get lower down in the stadium seating, and people got shot.”
Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were later identified as the Brown students killed in the mass shooting.
Cook, 19, was a sophomore from Alabama who served as vice president of the Republican Club of Brown University.
On Monday, December 15, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered her condolences to Cook’s loved ones.
“There are no words,” Leavitt said in a post on social media. “Thinking of her family and friends, especially her parents. God, please bless them.” Cook’s priest, Reverend Craig Smalley, called her a “bright light” during a livestreamed sermon, and called her “incredibly grounded and generous and faithful.” Cook began attending Brown in 2024.
Umurzokov, a freshman, was an Uzbek American student who “had big dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon and helping people,” it is explained on a GoFundMe page that had raised more than $500,000 by Thursday, December 18. “He was incredibly kind, funny, and smart. He continues to be my family’s biggest role model in all aspects. He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew. Our family is incredibly devastated by this loss.”
Both Mia Tretta and Zoe Weissman managed to live through the Brown University shooting but were no doubt retraumatized by it.
Tretta, 21, was shot during the 2019 mass shooting at Saugus High School in California, when a 16-year-old boy walked into the school and shot five students, killing two. The shooter later ended his own life as police arrived at the scene. Weissman, 20, was a student at Westglades Middle School next door to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when that school shooting unfolded, claiming the lives of 14 students and three faculty members. She wasn’t shot but was in class in 2018 when the gunfire began.
The school said in a statement after the shooting there was no immediate threat to Brown or its surrounding community. The school did cancel all remaining in-person finals.
