FBI Reveals Motive Behind Brown University Shooter’s Attack That Killed Two

The FBI believes it has determined what drove the suspected gunman behind the fatal mass shooting at Brown University. In December, the suspect entered the campus and opened fire with a handgun, killing two people and injuring several others.

According to Reuters, the FBI believes the gunman was “driven by an accumulation of grievances that he collected throughout his life.” Authorities also noted that the suspect, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, spent years planning the attack.

Much of the investigation into the suspect has been completed. In a joint announcement with federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, the FBI’s Boston division shared investigators’ assessment of the incident and the suspect.

According to the FBI, Neves Valente acted alone. On December 13, he entered an engineering building on the Brown University campus. The Portuguese national opened fire with a handgun, killing two students and injuring nine others.

Two days later, on December 15, Neves Valente killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, Nuno Loureiro, during a shooting at his home outside Boston. Authorities said the suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on December 18.

His body was found at a New Hampshire storage facility amid a manhunt. In January, authorities released transcripts of video recordings he made before he died. In the recordings, Neves Valente admitted to planning the Ivy League university attack. However, he did not provide a clear motive for targeting the victims.

The FBI now says he began planning the attack in 2022 after acquiring a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Authorities further noted that he acted alone and that his victims were “symbolic in nature.” The victims represented “his personal failures and injustices he perceived were inflicted by others over time.” The FBI added that his “inflated sense of self contributed to interpersonal conflicts in his life and led him to believe he was being treated unjustly.”

Neves Valente’s “paranoia increased, compounding his continued inability to thrive, leading to his mental decline and commitment to dying,” authorities said.

According to records, after completing a physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, he attended Brown University two decades ago. Authorities said he had studied in Portugal with the slain MIT professor. In 2001, he left Brown and also left the U.S.

Later, in 2017, he obtained lawful permanent residency while living in Florida. The FBI said he was unemployed when he carried out the attacks and may have been suffering from paranoia and a mental health decline.