MIT nuclear physicist, shooter, knew each other and were classmates in Portugal before murder
By Jennifer Eagan, John Atwater, Tim Nazzaro
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BOSTON (WCVB) — The United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah B. Foley held a press conference Thursday night, revealing new details into the deadly shootings of both two Brown University students on Saturday and MIT nuclear physicist Nuno F.G. Loureiro on Monday in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national from Miami. Officials said he was born in Torres Novas, Santarem, Portugal and was a legal permanent resident of the United States.
Foley revealed that Neves Valente and Loureiro were former classmates at an academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.
It’s not clear if the two men remained in touch.
“We are grateful to all who played a part in identifying and tracking down the suspect in the killing of Prof. Loureiro. Our community continues to mourn and remember Nuno — an incredible scientist, colleague, mentor and friend. Our thoughts are also with the Brown University community, which suffered so much loss this week,” MIT said in a statement.
Neves Valente was a PhD student at Brown University from 2000 until 2001 and only studied physics, according to a university spokesperson. He took a leave of absence from the Ivy League school in April 2001 before officially unenrolling in 2003.
While the motive remains unclear, surveillance video from Loureiro’s Brookline neighborhood allegedly showed the gunman in the area days before the deadly shooting, according to Foley.
On Dec. 15, investigators said video from inside the nuclear physicist’s apartment showed Neves Valente wearing a specific set of clothes before shooting Loureiro in the lobby.
Hours later, surveillance video from a storage unit facility in Salem, New Hampshire showed the gunman wearing the same thing that was caught on the Brookline cameras, according to Foley.
Neves Valente was found dead inside the storage facility on Thursday, Dec. 18. Authorities said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Bruno Soares Goncalves, a friend of Loureiro, said he will be deeply missed.
“He was a very funny guy to be around, very intelligent humor, maybe from the time he lived in England, he developed this kind of humor,” Goncalves said. “He’s someone who enjoyed being near the students, someone that loved to be in front of the blackboard, and drawing equations.”
Loureiro, who was married, grew up in Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning a doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at an institute for nuclear fusion in Lisbon before joining MIT, it said.
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