Claudio Neves Valente: Brown shooting suspect's promising physics record, time at Brown University and more
Claudio Manuel Nueves Valente has been identified as the suspect in the Brown University shooting which left two dead and nine injured.
Claudio Manuel Nueves Valente has been identified as the suspect in the Brown University shooting on December 13 which left two dead and nine injured.
The 48-year-old Portuguese national was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, as law enforcement officials surrounded the storage facility where they'd traced his car. Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, said that Neves Valente attended the same academic program in Portugal as Nuno F.G. Loureiro. The MIT professor was shot in his Brookline home, and declared dead a day later.
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While it is believed that Valente knew Loureiro, there was no indication that he knew any of the victims in the Brown University incident, as per Foley, New York Times reported.
Valente enrolled in the Brown graduate physics program in the fall of 2000. He took a leave of absence in April 2001 and formally withdrew, effective July 31, 2003. Brown University president Christina H. Paxson shared that Valente had signed up for master of science Ph.D. program in physics.
However, his promise in physics was clear from his time in Portugal.
Valente's physics achievements in Portugal
In 2004, Valente reportedly placed third in the National Physics Olympiad, showing early promise in the subject. Then, he went on to represent Portugal at the International Physics Olympiad in Australia in 1995, as per a report.
In September 1998, he was a ‘monitor’ at Instituto Superior Técnico (I.S.T.), but was terminated from the position in February 2020.
Notably, Loureiro graduated from I.S.T. the same year as Valente was terminated from his position. At Brown, he had only signed up for physics, before deciding to withdraw from the program.
The president of the institute also noted that most physics classes were held at the Barus & Holley building, where the shooting took place.
