Brown Shooter Planned Attack for Years, Leaves Behind Confession Videos | DOJ

The US Department of Justice has revealed that Claudio Neves Valente, the 48-year-old shooter who killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor, had planned the attack for at least six semesters. Valente, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, took his own life in a New Hampshire storage facility after the shootings. The FBI recovered an electronic device containing videos made by Valente after the attacks. In these recordings, Valente confessed to the murders in Portuguese, stating that he had been working out the details for years. He did not provide a motive for targeting Brown or the professor, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, with whom he attended school in Portugal decades ago. Valente addressed baseless claims spread by conservative influencer Laura Loomer, stating that he did not speak Arabic and did not intend to make any kind of statement during the attack. He also denied being mentally ill and claimed that he did not want to be famous. The videos reveal that Valente had a clear plan and randomly targeted students, injuring nine others in addition to the two students he killed. He described his execution of the murders as 'a little incompetent' but stated that he had achieved his goal of leaving on his own terms. Valente's past and motivations have been explored through the recovered videos. He mentioned his confrontation with a witness at Brown, which led to his identification days later. He also discussed his life in the US and Portugal, stating that he had been living in the country for around 25 years. Brown University has released a statement expressing their continued grief over the tragedy and praying for the recovery of those injured. The US Department of Justice has released the information in an effort to shed light on the motives behind the attack and to address the misinformation spread by some individuals.