The Brown University shooting suspect made strange, “barking” sounds moments before opening fire and killing two students at the Ivy League campus, officials said. Some witnesses said they heard Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, making dog-like noises as he entered a lecture hall at Brown on Saturday, moments before firing more than 40 rounds.
“There are some witnesses who said he said nothing. There are some that say he made a barking noise,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a Thursday press conference. “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.”
Strange Sounds Before Massacre
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The details emerged as investigators admitted that they were still struggling to determine a motive for the deadly rampage. Authorities said Valente first opened fire inside a classroom at the Ivy League school, then, just two days later, shot and killed MIT professor Nuno Loureiro.
Valente, who had studied at Brown University more than 20 years ago as a PhD student and was once a classmate of the slain MIT professor back in Portugal, was later found dead on Thursday from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Even with those apparent connections to both Brown and the MIT professor, investigators said they are still unable to determine what drove Valente to carry out the attacks.
“I don’t think we have any idea why now, or why Brown, or why these students, why this classroom,” Neronha said.
More Details Emerge
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This came as it was revealed that Valente had been stalking the Ivy League campus for weeks before launching his deadly attack, court documents show.
A campus custodian said that he spotted a “suspicious person” — later identified as the shooter — hanging around the engineering building on both Nov. 28 and Dec. 1, according to a 35-page affidavit.
The custodian told investigators he encountered Valente multiple times during his shifts between 3 p.m. and sunset, noting that the suspect was wearing a surgical mask and appeared to walk with a limp.
About two weeks later, surveillance video recorded the same man pacing around the building just hours before he entered and carried out the shooting.
The custodian’s report surfaced before a homeless man, identified only as John, stepped forward and said he had also noticed the suspect behaving strangely in areas around the campus in the days leading up to the attack.
