A friend of the gunman behind the deadly Brown University shooting revealed he was known to bully classmates and would, at times, refer to a Brazilian student as his ‘slave.’
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a six-day manhunt.
Investigators believe he is responsible for fatally shooting two students and wounding nine others at Brown, and then two days later, killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.
There are still ‘a lot of unknowns’ in regard to Valente’s motive, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said during a disaster press conference Thursday.
On Friday, Scott Watson, who described himself as the shooter’s ‘only close friend,’ told The New York Times that while Valente could be ‘kind and gentle,’ he also had a darker side.
‘I had to break up a fight once,’ Watson told the outlet.
He described his former friend as ‘brilliantly smart,’ yet also a bully who called other students ‘slaves,’ and who was frequently unhappy and sometimes angry.
Watson, now a physics professor at Syracuse and a former classmate of Valente in Brown’s physics Ph.D. program, said Valente frequently complained that the coursework was too easy and the campus food was lacking.
A friend of the gunman behind the deadly Brown University shooting revealed he was known to bully classmates and would at times, refer to a Brazilian student as his ‘slave’
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, the suspect in the Brown University shooting in Providence, Rhode Island, picks up a vehicle at an Alamo Rent a Car facility on November 17, 2025
The revelation coincided with the unearthing of a hidden internet post allegedly written by Valente on a Brown physics message board after he dropped out in May 2001, according to the NYT.
The page, accessible only through the Internet Archive and not independently verified, appears to show Valente saying he was back in Portugal and listing an email for classmates to get in touch.
It also included a message written in Portuguese that, when translated, read: ‘The greatest liar is the one who is able to lie to themselves. These exist everywhere, but they sometimes proliferate in the most unexpected places.’
Valente revisited his former university in Providence, Rhode Island on December 13 and fired at least 44 rounds from his 9 mm pistol, killing two students and injuring another nine.
‘There are some witnesses who said he said nothing. There are some that say he made a barking noise,’ AG Neronha said, adding: ‘Don’t ask me. I don’t know why. And that’s it. There is no other spoken word beyond that, that we are aware of.’
The two Brown students killed during the study session were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.
Two days later, he travelled 50 miles and fatally shot Dr Loureiro, a father of three, at his home in the Boston suburbs before disappearing, triggering a five-day manhunt.
He was found dead Thursday night in a storage rental facility in Salem, New Hampshire, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had two firearms on him at the time of his death, Neronha revealed.
Investigators believe Valente is responsible for fatally shooting two students and wounding nine others at Brown, and then two days later, killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro
There are still ‘a lot of unknowns’ in regard to Valente’s motive, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said
Scott Watson, who described himself as the shooter’s ‘only close friend,’ told the NYT that while Valente could be ‘kind and gentle,’ he also had a darker side
Neronha said Friday that the suspect meticulously planned the attacks and attempted to mislead law enforcement, according to NBC News.
He said the suspect used voice over internet protocol – allowing calls to be made over the internet rather than through cell service – avoided ‘traditional’ credit cards and even changed the license plate on his rental car.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez told the outlet that the department had to return ‘to the old-fashioned way of policing’ to learn more about the suspect’s cryptic movements.
‘Which was interviewing individuals, reviewing hundreds of videos and footage,’ Perez said.
‘This individual was strategic in every way, using apps to communicate, changing plates on vehicles, covering his face, the clothing that he used, the areas that he drove into,’ he added.
The suspect reportedly used two separate firearms during the attacks, with the ATF now comparing ballistics.
Even with him attempting to cover his tracks, the attorney general said authorities tracked him down just a day after his identity became known.
However, law enforcement have come under fire not identifying and locating Valente quickly enough to prevent Loureiro’s murder, with critics blasting the FBI after a Reddit user ‘cracked the case’ before they did.
The suspect’s friend revealed that Valente frequently complained that the coursework was too easy and the campus food was lacking when they attended school together
The revelation coincided with the unearthing of a hidden internet post allegedly written by Valente on a Brown physics message board after he dropped out in May 2001
Valente was found dead Thursday night in a storage rental facility in Salem, New Hampshire, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had two firearms on him at the time of his death
The suspect, who studied at Brown 20 years ago, was on the run from the police for days, but his eventual demise came when a Reddit post flagged his suspicious activity outside the Ivy League campus.
Authorities said information from the internet user who had several strange encounters with Valente on a sidewalk outside Brown University.
Known only as ‘John’ in a Providence police affidavit, the source is being hailed by investigators as the key figure who gave law enforcement the details needed to determine who was behind the Brown shooting, as well as the killing of Loureiro.
As police posted images of a person of interest – now identified as Neves Valente – John began posting on the social media forum Reddit that he recognized the person and theorized that police should look into ‘possibly a rental’ gray Nissan.
Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, and John said he did. The police affidavit said they learned about the tip on December 16, three days after the shooting and a day after the tip line was created.
Up until that point, the police affidavit says officials had not connected a vehicle to the possible shooter.
That detail led them to get more video of a Nissan Sentra sedan with Florida plates and enabled Providence police officers to tap into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated around the city by surveillance company Flock Safety.
The affidavit said John gave investigators additional critical details, including his encounter with Neves Valente in the bathroom of the engineering building just hours before the attack, where John noted the suspect’s clothing was ‘inappropriate and inadequate for the weather.’
John also bumped into Neves Valente outside, mere blocks from the building, where he watched Valente ‘suddenly’ turn around from the Nissan when they made eye contact.
What ensued was then a ‘game of cat and mouse,’ according to John’s testimony – where the two would encounter each other and Valente would run away.
At one point, John says he yelled out ‘Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?’
‘The Suspect responded, “I don’t know you from nobody,” then Suspect repeatedly asked, “Why are you harassing me?”‘ according to the affidavit.
John told police he eventually saw Neves Valente approach the Nissan sedan once more and decided to walk away.
