Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the shooting that killed two students and left an additional nine injured, recorded four videos before dying by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a Tuesday press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Transcripts of the videos, translated from Portuguese to English by officials, offer no clear motive for the shooting at Brown or the murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro two nights later. He refused to write a manifesto or explain his reasoning, saying he had “absolutely no patience” and was “not going to give you the right to that.”
“Even though I would have a lot to say and write, I don’t care,” he said.
The suspect said that he wanted to “leave more or less on (his) own terms” so that he “wouldn't be the one who ended up suffering the most from all of this.” Authorities found Neves Valente’s body on Dec. 18 in a Salem, New Hampshire storage facility, following a five-day manhunt.
Neves Valente showed no remorse for his actions, saying he did not regret what he did. He criticized the students in the lecture hall where he opened fire, claiming that they could have escaped.
“Honestly, my only regret is this thing in the eye,” he said, referring to an injury he sustained from a shell round.
He said he expected claims that he was mentally ill, and preemptively denied them. “I am sane,” he said. “I’ve always been, more or less.”
Neves Valente had been planning the shooting for over six semesters, he said, adding that he had “plenty of opportunities” to target Brown earlier but had “always chickened out.”
He described needing a “catalyst” to carry out each of the attacks. A confrontation with an individual on campus, Neves Valente said, spurred the shooting in Barus and Holley. He did not specify what prompted him to murder Loureiro.
The incident at Brown did not go as planned, he said, as he initially planned to target a “regular room” rather than an auditorium. Neves Valente opened fire at the end of a final review session for ECON0110: “Principles of Economics” in Barus and Holley Room 166.
Neves Valente initially said that he did not recall saying anything upon entering the auditorium, but later said he “must have made an exclamation like ‘Oh no!” He refuted allegations that he said “Allah Akbar,” referencing rumors spread online claiming he yelled “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is greatest.”
He said he was surprised that authorities did not find him sooner, especially since the individual who confronted him knew his license plate. “I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me.”
“I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” Neves Valente said. “I think the world cannot be redeemed.”
Ian Ritter is a university news and science & research editor, covering graduate schools and students. He is a junior concentrating in chemistry. When he isn’t at The Herald or exploding lab experiments, you can find him playing the clarinet or watching the Mets.
