Brown University shooting: video confessions of Portuguese Claudio Neves Valente revealed
Videos reveal that Portuguese shooter Claudio Neves Valente confessed to the attacks at Brown University and the murder of an MIT professor
The gunman responsible for the deadly shooting last month at Brown University and the murder of an MIT professor two days later confessed to both crimes in a series of videos found by authorities, according to the The Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. The recordings were found in a warehouse in Salem, New Hampshire, where the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, was found dead days after the events, and the investigation concluded that he died by suicide.
Portuguese planned the attack for at least six semesters
According to official transcripts released Tuesday, Neves Valente said he had planned the attack at Brown University for at least six semesters, confirming the prolonged premeditation of the crime. “I had many opportunities, especially this semester… but I always chickened out,” the attacker said in one of the videos, according to the transcript. Authorities noted that it is unclear when the videos were recorded, although their content is considered key to the investigation.
No clear motive for the murders
The transcripts, which were translated from Portuguese to English by the Department of Justice, do not reveal a specific motive behind the murders, prosecutors said. In another part of the recorded testimony, the attacker referred to an encounter with a potential witness, showing awareness that he could be identified.
“They confronted me and he knew my student ID… honestly, I never thought it would take them this long to find me,” he stated.
The Brown Attack
Neves Valente, a former graduate student at Brown University, opened fire on December 13 during a study session in a classroom, killing two students and wounding at least nine others. Two days later, authorities confirmed that the same individual shot and killed MIT professor Nuno Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts.
According to the investigation, Neves Valente and Loureiro attended the same university in Portugal, where they both studied physics, and it is believed they knew each other previously,although the nature of that relationship has not yet been clarified.
Ongoing Investigation
Federal authorities continue to investigate the motives behind both shootings, while analyzing the full content of the videos and other items recovered after the attacker's death. The case has shocked the academic community in the United States and reignited the debate about gun violence and security on college campuses.

