A former Brown University physics graduate student who investigators believe was behind a mass shooting at an Ivy League school last weekend, as well as the shooting of a former classmate two days later, is being remembered by those who knew him during his high school years as a “brilliant” if at times angry man, as the motives for those incidents are still under investigation.
Authorities identified Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, as the suspect in Brown's killing. two students and wounded nine more people, and Murder of Nuno F.G. LoureiroMIT professor who was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
US Attorney Massachusetts via Reuters – PHOTO: Claudio Neves Valente, a suspect in the Brown University shooting at Providence, in this undated handout image posted Dec. 18, 2025.
Neves Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire warehouse Thursday after a days-long manhunt, authorities said. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, police and federal officials said.
According to two former classmates and his university in his native Portugal, Neves Valente was a brilliant student. At times he was remembered as friendly and kind, although one of his former classmates recalls that Neves Valente was prone to frustration and even anger and bullying.
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Neves Valente was the top student in his graduating class in 2000 in the physics and engineering program at Lisbon's prestigious Instituto Superior Técnico, a school spokesman told ABC News.
According to the IST representative, Loureiro was following Neves. The accomplished Portuguese scientist joined the MIT faculty in 2016 and, at the time of his death, was a faculty member in MIT's departments of nuclear science, engineering and physics, and director of the MIT Center for Plasma and Fusion Science.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – PHOTO: Nuno F.G. Loureiro, an MIT professor, has been identified as the man fatally shot in a home in Brooklyn on December 15, 2025.
Dr. Bruno Nobre, now a professor and dean at the Catholic University of Portugal who graduated from IST with Neves Valente and Loureiro in 2000, told ABC News in an email that he remembers Neves Valente well.
“Claudio was a brilliant student and a very friendly colleague,” Nobre said.
“At that time, there was nothing to indicate that he could have committed the acts of which he is accused,” he added.
He said that while they were studying at IST, Neves Valente and Loureiro had a “very normal” relationship as classmates.
“I don't believe they were very close,” he said.
Nobre said he last saw Neves Valente more than 20 years ago and doesn't know what his former classmate did after he came to the United States.
Steven Senn/AP – PHOTO: Law enforcement officials walk near the entrance to Brown University in Providence, R.I., Dec. 13, 2025, during a shooting investigation.
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Brown representatives confirmed that Neves Valente was enrolled at the university from fall 2000 to spring 2001 as a graduate student in physics and began graduate school at Brown in September 2000.
When Neves Valente began taking classes for his Ph.D. program at Brown, a classmate recalls Neves Valente becoming disillusioned.
Scott Watson, now a physics professor at Syracuse University, told ABC News in an email that at Brown he was “essentially [Neves Valente's] only friend.”
“He was socially awkward,” Watson recalled, “and so was I, and I think that’s why we became close.”
Watson said he fondly remembers dinners with Neves Valente at a local Portuguese restaurant near Brown's campus in Providence, Rhode Island, but Neves Valente often complained about life in the United States.
“I remember how frustrated he was with the quality of food on campus, especially the lack of quality fish,” Watson said.
Brian Snyder/Reuters – PHOTO: The FBI's Evidence Response Team searches the area outside the Brown University shooting as the manhunt continues in Providence, Rhode Island, December 15, 2025.
Watson said Neves Valente was also frustrated by what he saw as a lack of academic rigor in Brown's physics program.
“He would say that the classes were too easy – to be honest, for him it was. He already knew most of the material and was really impressive,” Watson said.
Neves Valente's frustration with life in the U.S., his courses and his professors sometimes reached the level of anger, Watson said, adding that he once had to break up a fight between Neves Valente and another classmate whom Watson said was insulted by the Portuguese national because of the classmate's Brazilian heritage.
Neves Valente took a leave of absence in April 2001 and officially left the university in 2003, Brown officials said.
Watson said the last time he spoke with Neves Valente, he was trying to convince his friend not to give up the program at Brown.
“He refused and that was the last I heard from him,” Watson said.
Much of Neves Valente's life has remained unclear since then.
Investigators said he obtained legal permanent residence in April 2017 and received a green card.
His last known address was in Miami, officials said.
ABC News' Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
