Disorder of Psychosis in Troubled Minds Destroying the Brilliance in Others

"He [tipster] blew this case right open." ['I’m being dead serious. Police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental', the tipster told police,'That was the car he was driving'.]"

"That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of the person renting the car."

"The car's rental agreement led to the shooter's identity."

Peter Neronha, attorney general, Rhode Island 

 

"We are grateful to all who played a part in identifying and tracking down the suspect in the killing of Professor Loureiro. Our community continues to mourn and remember Nuno -- an incredible scientist, colleague, mentor, and friend. Our thoughts are also with the Brown University community, which suffered so much loss this week."

"For now, our focus is on our community, on Nuno's family, and all those who knew him."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been identified as the man fatally shot at a home in Brookline on Dec. 15, 2025.  MIT

 

The suspicion arose well before police were tipped by a witness whose identity remains protected, other than that he is referred to as 'John', that two lethal shootings, one at Brown University the second nearby MIT, at the home of a renowned physics professor, could be related. There was an intensive hunt for the first shooting event that saw two students shot to death and others wounded. The shooting death of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro shortly after roused suspicion in many minds; a suspicion that was five days later to be confirmed when a manhunt for a permanent resident in the U.S. from Portugal, 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a former physics graduate student at Brown University as mounted.

 

A week ago, a lecture hall at Brown University was the venue where Valente shot and killed two students and wounded nine others at an economics study session in preparation for the Principles of Economics course final exam where teaching assistants were leading the class in the absence of Professor Rachel Friedberg. MIT professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics Loureiro was shot two days later in Brookline, Massachussets. Both Professors Friedberg and Loureiro happen to be Jewish, an incidental fact unmentioned in media reports.

 

Between 1995 and 2000, the shooter and Professor Loureiro were students at the Institute Superior Tecnico in Portugal, attending the same academic program -- so it was entirely plausible they knew one another. The university confirmed they wee both enrolled in the physical and technological engineering program and graduated in 2000. 

 

The intensive five-day search for the killer saw police asking for any possible witnesses able to help in locating the fugitive whose identity and whereabouts were  unknown, much less his motive for the attack. Local law enforcement scoured a wide area in their search for the gunman. And then mid-week a witness presented himself, describing an encounter with the killer prior to the attack at Brown University. 

 

Manuel Neves Valente, 48, seen inside a car rental facility.   New Hampshire attorney general

 

'John" noticed Valente on the Brown campus some hours before the Saturday shooting, describing him as suspiciously dressed in flimsy and inappropriate clothing given the cold weather. He followed the suspicious-appearing person from the building as he approached a grey Nissan Sentra with Florida plates. When 'John' confronted Valente, he responded "I don't know you from nobody. Why are you harassing me?" That encounter was posed by 'John' on Reddit following the shooting. 

 

Why Brown University became a target for Valente appears puzzling. He had enrolled in 2000, studying for a maser's degree in physics, but in the spring of 2001 took a leave of absence and withdrew formally n 2003 and since, without having achieved a degree, had no further contact with the university, according to Brown president Christina Paxton. Noting that at the time of his enrolment, Valente would likely have "spent a great deal of time" at the Barus and Holley building where the shooting took place.   

                     

Photos of the two Brown University victims Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook rest among flowers and candles in front of the Van Wickle Gates of the campus on Thursday. (Taylor Coester/Reuters)

 

Leah Foley, District of Massachussets U.S. attorney general revealed that Foley had rented a hotel room in Boston on his arrival in November, at a storage facility in New Hampshire. Investigators had traced the car he had rented to the Extra Space Storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. On Thursday evening as news helicopters hovered overhead, police eofficers with long guns prepared to enter the facility anticipating a confrontation.

 

Instead they found the lifeless body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who had committed suicide. Investigators, according to Attorney General Foley, believe that the man they were hunting isolated himself within the unit some short time following his killing of the MIT professor, and remained locked within the unit for days until he finally ended his life.  

"There are people who are driven by technology and engineering, and others who are driven by fundamental mathematics and physics. We need both."

"When we stimulate theoretically inclined minds by framing plasma physics and fusion challenges as beautiful theoretical physics problems, we bring into the game incredibly brilliant students — people who we want to attract to fusion development."

MIT professor Nuno Loureiro   

Providence Police Officers join state and federal law enforcement agents searching for the Brown University shooter, in Salem, New Hampshire, U.S., December 18, 2025. Cj Gunther/Reuters