By Aldgra Fredly
Contributing Writer
The suspect in the killings of two Brown University students and an MIT professor left behind video confessions before dying by suicide in a storage facility, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
In the videos, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and former Brown student, showed no remorse for the Dec. 13 shooting at Brown University — which left two students dead and nine others injured — and for the Dec. 15 fatal shooting of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home near Boston.
The DOJ said the FBI recovered an electronic device containing a series of videos during a search at the storage facility where Valente’s body was found on Dec. 18. Police said the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Investigators have not determined a motive for the shootings.
In a transcript released by the DOJ, Valente appeared to say he planned the attack for six semesters and complained about an eye injury he suffered when shooting Loureiro.
“To say that I was extraordinarily satisfied, no, but I also don’t regret what I did. Honestly, my only regret is this thing in the eye [laughs],” reads the transcript, translated from Portuguese.
Valente said in the videos that he would not apologize for his actions, saying, “during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” according to the transcript.
The suspect claimed he harbored “no hatred toward America” but also “no love” for the country and denied claims that he uttered Arabic phrases such as “Allahu akbar” during the Brown shooting.
Valente said he did not remember saying anything during the shooting, adding that if he did speak, it may have been “an exclamation like ‘oh no!’ or something like that,” to express disappointment when he saw the auditorium was empty when he entered. The suspect said he initially thought the students had left, but later realized they were hiding under tables and chairs.
In the videos, Valente claimed he was not mentally ill and that his “only objective was to leave more or less on my own terms” and wanted to ensure that he “wouldn’t be the one who ended up suffering the most from all of this,” according to the transcript.
The DOJ stated that while Valente had indicated Brown University was his intended target, he did not provide a motive for targeting the students or the MIT professor.
“Our investigation into the motives behind Neves Valente’s heinous acts will continue,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement released by the DOJ.
The two students fatally wounded in the attack were Ella Cook, vice president of the College Republicans at Brown and a native of Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national.
According to Brown University President Christina Paxson, Valente had been enrolled at the school several decades ago for a short time, attending from fall 2000 to spring 2001.
Brown University said in a statement on Tuesday that “the gravity of this tragedy continues to weigh heavily on the full Brown University community” and that they continue to mourn the deaths of the two students and pray for the full recovery of those who were injured.
Joseph Lord and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
