RI - Mass Shooting at Brown University - Providence 13 Dec 2025

[Serononin]

20+ years of grudge-holding, months (possibly even years?) of planning, a difficult-to-track phone, and a rental car with multiple sets of plates ... versus one dude with good instincts and a Reddit account.

Great work, John!!

 

[getthefax]

From the affidavits and press conferences (I forget which had what) we know that he was enrolled in the same physics program in Portugal as the MIT victim, from 1995-2000. They were there at the exact same time, and are believed to have known one another.

Following that, he was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, took a leave of absence in April 2001, and formally withdrew in July 2003.

I'm not sure we know what he had been doing since then.

As to your first part, I do tink he probably completed his list. Following the murder of the professor, he headed straight to the storage unit and never left. He was likely dead 3 days ago.

Sounds like he powered through an undergrad program in physics, then had a bit of a breakdown once he got to Brown, and maybe held a grudge ever since. Who knows? Perhaps he had asked Dr. Loureiro for help, or possibly to pick back up/continue his studies & work with him at some point, etc. and he was rejected? Speculation, but there's a connection of some sort that we'll know about fairly soon I'd guess.

CV would have been around 22 years old when he began his leave of absence from Brown-- a common age at which mental illnesses can onset (though we have no confirmation that he has a documented mental illness, I suspect we will learn more about some personal struggles the man had over the weeks to come).

To my eye, the man we see in the photos of CV at the car rental agency, he looks like he could be as old as 70 -- doesn't look as though life has been particularly kind to him. He looks like a pretty "old" 48 to me.

 

[Betty P]

I had a feeling it was targeted. Like I said, people wanting fame, terrorism, or to make a political statement don’t fade into the background. Had to be targeted or completely random.

If he was so unhappy with his academic career in the U.S., he should have returned to Portugal. The cost and quality of living is better there. They also have universal health care, allowing him to get treatment for his psychological / mental problems.

 

[MollyHarps]

Just caught up - what a hero John (Reddit guy) is.

Huge credit for him coming forward - quite often homeless people and the police’s relationship is quite strained so it must have taken a lot to do so (this might explain why he posted on Reddit first in the hope somebody else would call the tip In).

I really hope (if he wants it) he is given the chance to turn his life around - he has great intuition.

 

[Rikissa]

The question is, how many students the physics program had and whether they were good acquaintances or barely knew one another. Some programs are huge.

Theoretically, it might hurt more if someone that you knew well (and perhaps, even viewed as inferior to yourself) achieves, and you do not. However, I can imagine a different situation: you and another student barely know one another. However, what school or university doesn't have "classmates" site? And if suddenly you start noticing your ex-classmate being praised and called "the brightest star", and you fail, some people can be triggered by this, too.

The Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) is Portugal had about 11,000 students in 2023, and back in the late 1990s and early 2000s there were most likely fewer students. Today there are 19 different domains of study at IST, I don't know how many in 2000. It's mentioned that Neves Valente and Nuno F.G. Loureiro had studied in the same academic program, but whether that means in the same domain or not I don't know. If it was the same domain, they would most likely have known eachother, the university isn't that huge.

Instituto Superior Técnico - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MollyHarps]

One thing Im slightly unsure of in this case is that LE mentioned he wore disguises to avoid facial recognition.

I don’t think he looks very disguised? His face in the CCTV from the day of the attack looks exactly like the guy at the car rental.

Im actually surprised nobody he knew seems to have mentioned his name to the tip line especially with his links to Brown University snd the Professor.

 

[Telltale]

Just caught up - what a hero John (Reddit guy) is.

Huge credit for him coming forward - quite often homeless people and the police’s relationship is quite strained so it must have taken a lot to do so (this might explain why he posted on Reddit first in the hope somebody else would call the tip In).

I really hope (if he wants it) he is given the chance to turn his life around - he has great intuition.

I hope all the attention doesn't wreck his life, precarious as it seems to be tbh. It seems like he really didn't want to come forward, he just wanted to get the information to the police.

It seems like 'John' was a former Brown student. He writes intelligently and articulately. Whatever went wrong to end up on the streets. He seems to have stayed near his old campus, probably because he could blend in and knew it well enough to use it's resources quietly. (Probably how he realised the suspect was out of place so easily, that was his territory so to speak.)

It would just like the internet to dox the guy, making it impossible for him to keep doing so, while hailing him as a hero. Then find out his life was not as clean cut or unproblematic and then pile on with the criticism (or make-up weird conspiracies about him) before promptly forgetting about him.

 

[Charlot123]

20+ years of grudge-holding, months (possibly even years?) of planning, a difficult-to-track phone, and a rental car with multiple sets of plates ... versus one dude with good instincts and a Reddit account.

Great work, John!!

One is amazed at the strength of human curiosity. Knowing myself, I’d probably say, “OK, whatever”. But John had the guts to ask, hey, what are you doing? And the soon to be mass murderer is complaining of being “harassed”!

 

[MelmothTheLost]

It has always fascinated me when these criminals go to great lengths to escape and THEN decide to off themselves.
It makes sense when they do it as authorities are closing in, to avoid capture in the moment, but this guy got to the storage facility three days ago.

It may suddenly have dawned on him that he had left his fingerprint(s) and DNA on the bullet casing and realised it was just a matter of time before he was identified and picked up. I would imagine that both would have been taken by the authorities when he was granted his green card and therefore on record even if he had not previously come into contact with the police.

 

[Elley Mae]

Police said students couldn’t provide a description of the suspect because he wore a mask. But in at least one instance, when police later showed a witness a photo of Neves Valente, she “quickly froze, physically pushed back and became emotional.”

“She was observed to be tearing up and shaking,” police said. “She then confirmed that the image showed the shooter.”

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/suspected-brown-university-gunman-found-dead/

 

[Elley Mae]

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/suspected-brown-university-gunman-found-dead/

Police then received a tip through Reddit that suggested they should look into a Nissan with Florida plates parked near the Rhode Island Historical Society. Police said a man claiming to be the poster later approached them and offered a description of Neves Valente.

The man told police he encountered the suspect on George Street, where the two would walk past each other and then slow down. At one point, they were standing two feet away from each other and the man said he asked Neves Valente, “Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?”

The suspect responded, “I don’t know you from nobody,” and repeatedly asked the man, “Why are you harassing me?”

 

[Telltale]

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/suspected-brown-university-gunman-found-dead/

Police then received a tip through Reddit that suggested they should look into a Nissan with Florida plates parked near the Rhode Island Historical Society. Police said a man claiming to be the poster later approached them and offered a description of Neves Valente.

The man told police he encountered the suspect on George Street, where the two would walk past each other and then slow down. At one point, they were standing two feet away from each other and the man said he asked Neves Valente, “Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?”

The suspect responded, “I don’t know you from nobody,” and repeatedly asked the man, “Why are you harassing me?”

I'm unclear of the timeline, was this after the shooting? Had news spread?

 

[CrimeDawg123]

If you planned to kill yourself why would you bother to return the rental car?

 

[Betty P]

Can we infer from that that Valente left the USA at some point after dropping out of Brown, probably went back to Portugal, and has only been back in the USA since 2017?

Those claims from Noem should probably be verified. Hopefully the news media can fact check.

 

[Elley Mae]

In this article there is a pic of him at csr rental location, he’s on him phone.

Motive sought after suspect in Brown University shooting, MIT professor's killing found dead, officials say

The Brown University shooting suspect was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities believe he is also responsible for killing an MIT professor.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Elley Mae]

Valente's last known address was in Miami, but he had rented a hotel room in Boston in late November, Foley said. On Dec. 1, he rented a gray Nissan Sentra, which was later observed intermittently in the campus area over the next 12 days leading up to the shooting, she said.

Brown University and MIT shooting suspect found dead; identified as former grad student

During a news conference Thursday, authorities identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente and said he took his own life.

abcnews.go.com

Authorities said that discovery ultimately led them to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on the border with Massachusetts, where Valente had rented a unit. Foley, the U.S. attorney, said investigators believe Valente had fled to the storage facility shortly after the shooting of the MIT professor on Monday night.

By Thursday night, investigators were closing in on the storage facility, obtaining a search warrant, which FBI SWAT teams executed shortly before 9 p.m.

 

[Betty P]

Just caught up - what a hero John (Reddit guy) is.

Huge credit for him coming forward - quite often homeless people and the police’s relationship is quite strained so it must have taken a lot to do so (this might explain why he posted on Reddit first in the hope somebody else would call the tip In).

I really hope (if he wants it) he is given the chance to turn his life around - he has great intuition.

Reading his comments on social media and in the news, he sounds like an intelligent, educated person. Not everyone who is homeless is a criminal, drunk, addict or mentally ill. Nancy are the working poor. Housing has simply become unaffordable for working class people in many parts of the U.S.,especially in urban areas on the east coast of the U.S. All it can take sometimes is a landlord raising your rent to a level you can’t afford.

 

[Telltale]

If you planned to kill yourself why would you bother to return the rental car?

Maybe he didn't intend to kill himself at first. Returning the car attracts less notice than dumping it.

Or if these murders were all part of his extended suicide... Whatever justification he had for doing this probably didn't make him the bad guy in his mind.

Many suicidal people clear up 'unfinished business' before exiting. I wouldn't be surprised to find he also put all his other affairs in order. Perhaps he returned the car because otherwise he'd be leaving a loose end.

If this tragedy was a product of his profoundly mentally ill and suicidal mindset. Perhaps he considered Brown and perhaps the MIT professor (old classmate?) as the reason his life went off the rails. Killing him and shooting up the school satisfied his life's ultimate 'unfinished business.' A final righteous act of retribution to even the score, before he ended his life.

He likely didn't plan past shooting up Brown, most mass shooters don't escape. He expected to die in shootout or during a standoff. I imagine he was almost in shock, with no concrete plan, in the aftermath. He decided to head back to his 'base' because he was still suicidal and the storage unit was a private space to finish things. If the car rental was close to the unit, perhaps returning it just felt simpler. Or maybe, knowing 'John' had seen him open the car, he assumed the police were already tracing it. Returning would less of a clue to his whereabouts than dumping it nearby. Above all and he didn't want them finding the storage unit before he could end his life.


MOO, obviously.

 

[CrimeDawg123]

Reading his comments on social media and in the news, he sounds like an intelligent, educated person. Not everyone who is homeless is a criminal, drunk, addict or mentally ill. Nancy are the working poor. Housing has simply become unaffordable for working class people in many parts of the U.S.,especially in urban areas on the east coast of the U.S. All it can take sometimes is a landlord raising your rent to a level you can’t afford.

Yes there are numerous reasons for people being homeless. Some people, even when given housing and work, end up back on the streets because they simply can't and don't want to adapt to societal norms. Nothing wrong with that. Lars Eighner comes to mind. His memoir, "Travels with Lizbeth" is a great read. We don't know John's circumstances and whatever the case, he deserves our respect and gratitude.

 

[Serononin]

One thing Im slightly unsure of in this case is that LE mentioned he wore disguises to avoid facial recognition.

I don’t think he looks very disguised? His face in the CCTV from the day of the attack looks exactly like the guy at the car rental.

Im actually surprised nobody he knew seems to have mentioned his name to the tip line especially with his links to Brown University snd the Professor.

I think the "disguise" was just the mask he was wearing.

I hope that high-profile cases like this don't result in even more backlash against the many immunocompromised people (and their family members) who still regularly mask to protect their health