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

[CaptRenault]

Kind of a summery of what everyone already pieced together. What he's been doing since he got back to the US in 2017 is the question I've not seen the answer to yet...

I agree that "...what he's been doing since he got back to the US in 2017.." is a question to which I would have expected to be answered by now. I would think that if he had had a job of some kind that someone who knew him from his job would have stepped forward by now to say something about his job.

How knows? Maybe he worked from home in some IT job that paid fairly well but didn't require him to interact with coworkers. Still it's mysterious that someone hasn't recognized his name and description and volunteered at least a few basic facts about what he was doing since 2017.

Though his parents have been described as being well off, he was estranged from them so they seem like an unlikely source of money. Is it true, as some reports indicate, that he owned an expensive condo and a couple, expensive luxury cars? Where do those details come from and where did the money come from?

Another article that I saw said that, when he was found dead, he had two credit cards in names other than his own in his possession. That could be an interesting detail, possibly indicating that he made money through some kind of illegal activity. However, he had no criminal record so maybe not.

I don't think we will ever truly understand what motivated him to commit these horrible murders. But learning what has happened in his life since 2017 would be helpful in understanding how he came to do what he did.

 

[Lebowski]

three theories on what he's been doing for money:

1) he had an ordinary employer, and LE has found them, but it just hasn't been made public
2) he was doing something where he could make money anonymously, like e-commerce or freelance software development
3) he had enough put away to live off the interest, because he was smart with his money in the 2000s and 2010s, and/or leeched off his parents

i agree, though, it is odd.

 

[Lebowski]

between the credit cards with names that weren't his, the flash drives, the NH storage unit he's had for 3 years, and the big fat question mark for what he's been doing the last 8 years, this case has the potential for more twists

 

[no nonsense]

three theories on what he's been doing for money:

1) he had an ordinary employer, and LE has found them, but it just hasn't been made public
2) he was doing something where he could make money anonymously, like e-commerce or freelance software development
3) he had enough put away to live off the interest, because he was smart with his money in the 2000s and 2010s, and/or leeched off his parents

i agree, though, it is odd.

Maybe he was a gambler/poker player? Physics folks are math whizzes and can calculate probabilities pretty efficiently.

 

[wibbleflea]

three theories on what he's been doing for money:

1) he had an ordinary employer, and LE has found them, but it just hasn't been made public
2) he was doing something where he could make money anonymously, like e-commerce or freelance software development
3) he had enough put away to live off the interest, because he was smart with his money in the 2000s and 2010s, and/or leeched off his parents

i agree, though, it is odd.

Don’t rule out crypto. Lots of money was made there, legally and illegally. Someone with coding skills and the ability to detect vulnerabilities and weaknesses in code would have been able to siphon off decent sums with some degree of anonymity, though not as much as outsiders often think. Token scams and rug-pulls have been rampant for years. But even legitimate mining would have yielded decent sums, if the timing and conditions were right.

I wonder if the credit cards were in his parents’ names.

 

[knla]

Why didn't he put gloves on to load his gun?

 

[indicolite22]

Is it true, as some reports indicate, that he owned an expensive condo and a couple, expensive luxury cars? Where do those details come from and where did the money come from?

SBM. In Florida he lived in a rented property together with other renters.

 

[dontstayin]

Has there ever been any mention of a love interest or partner in his life? Could he have been scorned at Brown and been plotting his revenge ever since. Could be the reason for him leaving.
Was LN his live interest/factuation?

 

[getthefax]

between the credit cards with names that weren't his, the flash drives, the NH storage unit he's had for 3 years, and the big fat question mark for what he's been doing the last 8 years, this case has the potential for more twists

Add to that that early on, there were reports that Israel was looking into any potential connection to Iran. I don’t know what has become of that probe, but it was definitely being considered. Food for thought.

 

[123spain]

I think the most likely explanation is that he came from money. He owned an apartment in Lisbon at 20 years old, thats unheard of unless you inherited it.

 

[Megnut]

Maybe he was quite successful until 2017 and lost a great deal of money at the same time, and that's what compelled him to look up his old rival. Which set his blood aboil, for all the success. Social media has unwound a lot of lives. Breeding ground for envy and revenge.

Not a stretch IMO to think that he saw Nuno as having stolen the live he should have had (completely ignoring Nuno's skills and hard work that got him where he was). All of that becoming a pressure cooker where Brown was the lid. If that program had been to his liking, he may have believed his life would have been different...

I'm curious whether he had any actual intel on what was scheduled for that classroom at 2 pm that day (IMO his entrance into it was delayed by two hours, interrupted by John). I personally think his vendetta there was any professor, because Claudio would have IMO believed himself to be better than all of them. At 2 pm, students would have been seated; instructor, at the podium. Only one individual facing him as he entered.

People ask why he's hit a large target before assassinating his one target.

I think this answers that. He had two targets. One, whoever was teaching at Brown in his place, and Nuno, who had the life I think Claudio believed he was entitled to.

There may have been mass casualties at Brown. (He came with great firepower, possibly two firearms and a bullet proof vest.) He could have killed the professor (the TA who wasn't even a professor) before the students even knew what was happening. I think he would have shot whoever was in the way of his mission and his egress. As it happened, the session was ending, not beginning. Students were exiting, probably simultaneous to his arrival, and he just started shooting --

Then he set off to assassinate Nuno. And when that was complete, he killed himself.

Family annihilator without a family. Murder/suicide.

JMO

 

[Megnut]

I wonder if we'll learn he was in financial distress from 2017.

JMO

 

[knla]

Everybody describes Nuno Loureiro as brilliant and kind.

Nuno Loureiro, professor and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, dies at 47

Nuno Loureiro, an MIT professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics, has died at 47. A theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, and director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Loureiro studied complex problems at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of...

news.mit.edu

 

[Lebowski]

no surprise there

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I agree that "...what he's been doing since he got back to the US in 2017.." is a question to which I would have expected to be answered by now. I would think that if he had had a job of some kind that someone who knew him from his job would have stepped forward by now to say something about his job.

How knows? Maybe he worked from home in some IT job that paid fairly well but didn't require him to interact with coworkers. Still it's mysterious that someone hasn't recognized his name and description and volunteered at least a few basic facts about what he was doing since 2017.

Though his parents have been described as being well off, he was estranged from them so they seem like an unlikely source of money. Is it true, as some reports indicate, that he owned an expensive condo and a couple, expensive luxury cars? Where do those details come from and where did the money come from?

Another article that I saw said that, when he was found dead, he had two credit cards in names other than his own in his possession. That could be an interesting detail, possibly indicating that he made money through some kind of illegal activity. However, he had no criminal record so maybe not.

I don't think we will ever truly understand what motivated him to commit these horrible murders. But learning what has happened in his life since 2017 would be helpful in understanding how he came to do what he did.

I had missed the detail of credit cards in other names..
THIS sounds quite interesting. Perhaps he was really skilled with nepherius financial transactions.

I still wonder HOW he was able to own real estate using his father's name.

I am sure the FBI is determined to track back with those other names on the credit cards. I just hope they tell us.

What a wretch.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

three theories on what he's been doing for money:

1) he had an ordinary employer, and LE has found them, but it just hasn't been made public
2) he was doing something where he could make money anonymously, like e-commerce or freelance software development
3) he had enough put away to live off the interest, because he was smart with his money in the 2000s and 2010s, and/or leeched off his parents

i agree, though, it is odd.

I wonder if there are any governmental tracking processes for these lottery recipients?

 

[Lebowski]

Has there ever been any mention of a love interest or partner in his life? Could he have been scorned at Brown and been plotting his revenge ever since. Could be the reason for him leaving.
Was LN his live interest/factuation?

one of the portuguese articles said this

"The Cláudio I knew wasn't a monster, a psychopath. Not even an 'outsider'."

CV's description by an anonymous classmate from IST: empathetic, a companion for dinners, university parties, and trips to the movies, occasionally infatuated with someone, diligent and studious, "exceptional" in intelligence and study, arrogant but not narcissistic or rude

"He wasn't more mysterious than most. He wasn't an outsider. He didn't isolate himself more than others. Cláudio was perfectly normal. Until he gave up his PhD at Brown, after a year there, in 2001.”

...

bbm, sbm

assuming that means romantically (and this isn't just some translation issue), this is the only reference i've seen to that side of his life. throughout this, i've had the impression he was mostly or entirely unsuccessful with intimate partners, was probably bitter about it, and i'm guessing it played a role here, at least indirectly.

 

[sds71]

Brown University has retained former United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary Cunha as sources tell me they prepare for possible lawsuits. Brown shared this statement, “Brown works routinely with outside counsel whose expertise complements that of the University's Office of the General Counsel. In this case, we retained Zachary Cunha, the former United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, to assist the University in coordinating with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/2003150886445437334

 

[Charlot123]

three theories on what he's been doing for money:

1) he had an ordinary employer, and LE has found them, but it just hasn't been made public
2) he was doing something where he could make money anonymously, like e-commerce or freelance software development
3) he had enough put away to live off the interest, because he was smart with his money in the 2000s and 2010s, and/or leeched off his parents

i agree, though, it is odd.

Perhaps all three, but theoretically, if you are a programmer in good standing in your company, you can be hired in US. So I wonder if he was making a lot as a freelancer employed by someone working in a country where such services are rewarded better that in Portugal. So what he did have was the money and what he didn’t have in the US would be recent recommendations, and it is important to get a job.

Still, people, even very shy, do have friends and relationships. How come we hear nothing of it? If he had one friend in Brown, he ought to have had at least one friend or partner back home. And if he didn’t, his travels need to be checked.

 

[Sundog]

Paywalled article, just brief descriptions available under the title.

Brown University custodian says he saw the alleged mass shooter, who opened fire in a classroom on Dec. 13, nearly a dozen times weeks before the attack and shared suspicions with an on-campus security guard.

Brown University custodian says he saw shooting suspect casing building over several weeks, flagged security - The Boston Globe

Derek Lisi, who has worked at Brown for 15 years, said he had taken note of a man pacing the hallways, peering into classrooms, and ducking into a bathroom to avoid being seen.

www.bostonglobe.com