Brown University Shooting Videos Show Signs of Prior Awareness and Planning, Experts Say
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Federal investigators are continuing to piece together the December shootings that killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor, leaving nine others wounded, authorities said.
Authorities on Tuesday released transcripts of videos they say were recorded by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man accused of carrying out the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT physicist.
Two Brown University students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the Dec. 13 shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus. Authorities said nine additional people were wounded during the incident. Two days later, Nuno Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was fatally shot in Brookline, Massachusetts.
According to officials, eight of the students injured during the Brown University shooting had been released from the hospital as of the latest update, while one victim remained hospitalized.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said investigators executed a federal search warrant on Dec. 18 at a storage facility linked to Neves Valente, a Portuguese national. During the search, the FBI recovered an electronic device containing several short videos that were allegedly recorded after the shootings. Transcripts of the videos, translated from Portuguese into English, were made public on Tuesday.
In the recordings, prosecutors said Neves Valente acknowledged that he had planned the Brown University shooting for an extended period of time and identified Brown as his intended target. Authorities noted that he did not provide a specific motive for targeting Brown students or the MIT professor.
Investigators also confirmed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the firearm used in the shootings as part of the ongoing investigation. Officials have not publicly disclosed details regarding the weapon’s origin or how it was obtained. Fox News Digital reported that it has reached out to the FBI for further comment.
Josh Schirard, a former tactical emergency response director involved in the response to the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting and the current director of Byrna Law Enforcement, said the transcripts appear to confirm responsibility for the attacks but offer limited insight into the shooter’s reasoning.
Schirard said the statements suggest the suspect understood the gravity of his actions and believed he had a personal justification, even though he did not clearly explain it. He added that the shooter rejected ideological motivations and denied suffering from mental illness.
According to Schirard, the transcripts include statements in which the suspect described being aware of his actions and acknowledged the difficulty of killing others, while also expressing envy toward individuals who could commit such acts without emotional struggle.
