Brown University shooting suspect died two days before his body was found, reveals autopsy
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: The autopsy report of Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT professor, revealed that he died of a single gunshot wound to the head two days before his body was found.
On Thursday, December 18, Valente's body was found in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. The autopsy report reveals his death has been ruled a suicide. He was a Portuguese national who was a permanent US resident.
Claudio Neves Valente died a day after MIT professor's killing
The New Hampshire Medical Examiner said on Friday that they believe Claudio Neves Valente died on Tuesday, a day after killing MIT professor Nuno Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, investigators said Valente rented the unit sometime around November. Authorities said they believe Valente was the attacker who opened fire last Saturday in Brown's Barus & Holley engineering building, killing two people and injuring nine others.
On Thursday, officers found Valente's rental car outside the storage facility, and investigators said he used multiple license plates on that car, including one from Maine that had not been in active use since 2011.
Valente's body had two 9mm Glock firearms equipped with green laser sights, five magazines with nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, and around $900 in cash, as per ABC News.
Investigators said they found more ammunition and body armor in his car. However, it's unclear where Valente acquired the guns.
Nicholas Daugustine, owner of Milford Firearms, mentioned that it's likely he bought them to his last known residence in Florida. Daugustine said, "Any handgun has to be purchased in the state that you live in."
"So, if he was from Miami and bought it legally – which I doubt he did – but if he did, he would have had to fill out a background check form, 4473, and he would have had to pass that background check successfully," the Milford Firearms owner said.
Witnesses reveal Brown University shooter 'made a barking noise' before shooting
Many witnesses to the Brown University shooting revealed that Claudio Neves Valente made unusual "barking" noises just before opening fire inside a classroom, the Rhode Island officials revealed.
Meanwhile, authorities added that accounts varied and that investigators were still working to determine what prompted the attack.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, during a press conference, said that investigators received conflicting witness statements about what had occurred moments before the shooting began.
"There are some witnesses who said he said nothing. There are some that say he made a barking noise. Don’t ask me. I don’t know why. And that’s it. There is no other spoken word beyond that that we are aware of," Neronha said.
Authorities added that Valente entered a classroom at Brown University and fired more than 40 rounds. Officials said that they had not identified a clear motive despite the unusual witness reports and the suspect's prior connections to the university.
