FBI releases transcripts of suspect’s videos in Brown shooting and MIT professor killing

Videos offer investigators’ most detailed account

Federal officials say a set of short videos recorded in Portuguese — recovered from an electronic device in a New Hampshire storage unit — amount to a confession by the man they believe carried out the December 2025 shooting at Brown University and the killing of a prominent MIT physicist.

On Dec. 18, 2025, investigators opened a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where they found the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, slumped on the concrete with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Nearby were two 9 mm pistols, ammunition, tactical gear and the electronic device containing the recordings.

On Jan. 6 and 7, the Justice Department and the FBI released English transcripts of the videos, providing the government’s most detailed narrative to date of the attacks that left three people dead in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Officials say the materials illuminate how long Valente prepared, how he moved between states and how investigators ultimately located him — while offering little clarity on a broader motive.

“The evidence we recovered — including these videos — confirms that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was solely responsible for the Brown University shooting and the murder of Professor Loureiro,” said Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office. “We have found no evidence of any co-conspirators, foreign direction or terrorist affiliation.”

The Brown shooting

Authorities say Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown physics doctoral student, opened fire inside a Brown engineering building on Dec. 13, 2025.

In the recordings, according to federal transcripts, Valente says he had planned the attack “for a long time,” spending “at least six semesters” — roughly three years — working out the details. He describes Brown as his intended target and says he had multiple chances to carry out the shooting earlier but “chickened out.”

Valente says he did not want to attack a large auditorium and preferred a smaller classroom, but ultimately entered Room 166, a 186-seat lecture hall in the Barus and Holley building.

Just after 4 p.m. on Dec. 13, during an optional final-exam review session, a man dressed in dark clothing entered and fired about 40 rounds from a handgun, according to police and witness accounts.

Two students were killed:

• Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Midlothian, Virginia, a pianist and vice president of the Brown College Republicans.
• MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, a first-year student and immigrant from Uzbekistan studying on scholarship.

Nine others were wounded and taken to Rhode Island Hospital and later survived. The shooter fled before officers reached the building, moving through a corridor that lacked full camera coverage.

Killing of MIT physicist

Two days after the Brown attack, gunfire erupted in the foyer of an apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the evening of Dec. 15. The victim, Nuno F. G. Loureiro, 47, was a Portuguese-born professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

He was taken to a Boston hospital and pronounced dead early on Dec. 16.

Loureiro was widely regarded as a leading figure in fusion energy research. Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, later called his killing “an irreplaceable loss for science.”

Officials did not initially link the shootings publicly, but federal authorities say forensic testing and surveillance footage soon pointed to a single suspect.

What the videos do — and do not — explain

Investigators say the Salem videos help fill gaps in the timeline but do not present a clear ideological or political motive.

In the recordings, Valente rejects the suggestion that he is mentally ill and disputes the idea that the videos constitute a manifesto. “I’m not going to apologize because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” he says in one clip, according to the Justice Department’s translation.

He describes the Brown attack as “a little incompetent” but adds that “at least something was done.” At another point, he says his “only objective was to leave on [his] own terms” and avoid being the one who “ended up suffering the most from all this.” He says he is “not extraordinarily satisfied” with the outcome and does not express regret.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said the videos appeared to reflect grievance and control rather than a coherent cause.

Evidence and the path to the storage unit

Federal officials say they believe Valente acted alone and prepared for years. In the videos, he says he rented the Salem storage unit for about three years, storing weapons and equipment.

When agents entered on Dec. 18, they found two Glock 9 mm pistols and ammunition. Ballistic analysis later matched one gun to shell casings recovered at Brown and the other to casings from Loureiro’s building, federal officials said.

Authorities also described how a blend of eyewitness reporting and data analysis led them to the unit.

In the weeks before the Brown shooting, a member of the campus community noticed a man repeatedly lingering around engineering spaces, according to law enforcement. After police released surveillance images, the witness believed the same man had been driving a gray rental Nissan.

The witness wrote about the encounters on Reddit; other users urged him to contact authorities. After he did so, officials said the tip proved pivotal.

Using license-plate reader systems, Providence police tracked the vehicle and traced it to an Alamo rental contract listing Valente as the renter and providing a Florida address, according to officials. Investigators then pulled hotel reservations, credit-card transactions and additional surveillance footage placing Valente near Brown at the time of the shooting, within a half-mile of Loureiro’s Brookline home, and entering a Salem storage facility.

In one video, Valente mentions being confronted on campus by a man who noticed his license plate — an apparent reference to the same witness — and says he was surprised it took investigators so long to find him.

Officials push back on misinformation

Federal officials said the transcripts also address false claims that spread online after the Brown shooting.

Some social media users and commentators alleged the gunman shouted “Allahu akbar” as he opened fire, implying an Islamist motive. Among those amplifying the claim was conservative activist Laura Loomer, who posted repeatedly that the attack was terrorism-related.

Investigators say they found no evidence supporting those assertions. In one video, Valente says he does not speak Arabic and did not make any religious or political exclamation.

“If I said anything when I entered, it was something like ‘oh no,’” he says, according to the transcript, describing his fear that the auditorium might be empty.

“There is absolutely no evidence that this was an act of international terrorism,” said Zachary Cunha, U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island.

Immigration debate and campus security questions

The case has also intersected with the national immigration debate.

Valente first came to the United States on a student visa in 2000 to attend Brown, and later obtained lawful permanent residency in 2017 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa program. After Valente was identified as the suspect, President Donald Trump directed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to suspend the diversity visa program, saying the shooter “should never have been allowed in our country.”

The suspension has drawn criticism from immigration lawyers and some former officials, who argue that targeting a congressionally created visa category based on one recipient’s crime lacks factual basis and may exceed executive authority. They note Valente had no known criminal record and that the attacks occurred more than two decades after his initial entry and eight years after he became a permanent resident.

In Providence and Cambridge, the focus has remained on mourning and on campus safety. Brown and MIT have held vigils and memorials. Brown has announced plans to review building access, expand camera coverage and increase mental-health and threat-assessment resources. MIT’s president praised Loureiro as a “brilliant scientist and generous mentor” and pledged to honor his work in fusion research.

Law enforcement officials said the case illustrates how difficult it can be to detect and prevent violence by a determined individual without recent institutional ties.

With the release of the videos and investigative files, officials say their work is effectively complete. For families and communities grieving Cook, Umurzokov and Loureiro, the documents provide a measure of clarity — and reminders of questions that remain unresolved.