The man responsible for two shootings at elite universities that ignited rumors of antisemitism has been found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire self-storage center, authorities announced late Thursday.
Though they did not explain his motives, authorities laid out a facts suggesting that Claudio Neves Valente might have been settling old scores when he targeted Brown University and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor on Saturday and Monday
More than two decades ago, they said, Valente had briefly been a graduate student at Brown in physics, where classes were often held in the targeted building. He also attended university with the MIT victim, Nuno Loureiro, in Portugal in the 1990s.
The incidents, which bookended the massacre on Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Australia, had ignited unfounded rumors of antisemitism among Jews on edge after several recent attacks on Jewish targets.
The shooting took place in a study session of a popular economics class taught by a Jewish professor who is entwined with Israeli academic institutions. She was not present, but speculation mounted online that she had been the target.
Online sleuths also claimed without basis that the shooter had shouted phrases associated with Islamic terrorists or pro-Palestinian activists after news reports quoted students saying he had shouted “something” before opening fire. Two students — a Christian woman from Alabama and a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan — were killed in the shooting and nine others were wounded, some seriously.
Armchair investigators posted analyses alleging that a Brown student who had participated in pro-Palestinian activism on the Ivy League campus had committed the shooting. Authorities attempted to tamp down the rumors, which flared as Brown removed webpages about the student in an attempt to curb the doxxing that they said was happening against him.
Laura Loomer, the Jewish far-right conspiracy theorist who is close to President Donald Trump, was among the loudest voices amplifying the idea that the attack had been staged by an Islamic terrorist.
The rumors made their way from the internet into the real world, with law enforcement officials fending off questions about them during press conferences as the investigation proceeded unusually slowly for a mass shooting. A different man was initially arrested and then freed.
The murder of Loureiro in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb with a large Jewish population, ignited even sharper unfounded allegations of antisemitic motive.
Antisemitism influencers and watchdogs posted videos saying that Loureiro’s murder showed Jews are not safe. They alleged that Loureiro was Jewish and pro-Israel, and said his murders showed that supporters of Israel were being “hunted down” in the United States.
But Loureiro was neither Jewish nor publicly pro-Israel. An analysis by the Forward found that the rumors could all be traced to a post by Ira Stoll, a former journalist who writes a conservative Substack that frequently takes aim at antisemitism at elite universities. Stoll later edited his post to show that he had learned that Loureiro was not Jewish, but that did not curb the rumors, which ricocheted across an influencer ecosystem that has thrived amid rising antisemitism. The claims were picked up by Israeli news outlets, including the Jerusalem Post, which extended their reach.
The Jerusalem Post also published unattributed claims that Israeli officials were investigating whether Iran had been involved in the murder of Loureiro, a nuclear scientist.
The five-day saga offered a case study in how misinformation can spread — and how the antisemitism watchdog space, already activated by an attack on Jews staged by gunmen whom Australian authorities say had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, can play a role in it.
A viral post attributed to Casey Babb, a Canadian researcher who is affiliated with both independent and pro-Israel think tanks, listed 11 incidents that the post said showed that “Jews worldwide are being hunted down and killed” during Hanukkah. It included the Brown and MIT incidents and said Loureiro was Jewish. Only two of the incidents — the Australia attack and vandalism against a family’s Hanukkah display in California — actually targeted Jews. The post was continuing to spread on Friday morning, even after authorities attributed the Brown and MIT attacks to Valente.
In the end, authorities said, it was an online post that also provided the break that led them to identify Valente and track him to New Hampshire. A Reddit user identified as “John” in police filings posted that officials should look into a particular rental car he said he had seen at Brown. Once they did, they were able to identify Valente as the man who rented it and trace it to the New Hampshire storage center where he was found dead.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha praised John early Friday. “When you crack it, you crack it,” he said.
