The man suspected of carrying out two murderous attacks — one at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine more, and another that killed the MIT professor in his Brookline home — was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire last night. The murderer apparently took the coward’s way out.
Listening to the Providence press conference last night — it was followed by one featuring United States Attorney Leah Foley speaking about the murder of MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro — we learned that a witness who had confronted the murderer on the Brown campus provided the key to the breaking of the case by law enforcement. His information “blew this case right open,” according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha at the news conference. The witness is only identified as “John” in a police affidavit. We need to hear more about that man while we mourn the dead. What a tragic loss.
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente has now been identified as the murderer. He attended the same academic program in Portugal as Professor Loureiro from 1995-2000 and also attended Brown in the 2000-2001 school year. Just about all the rest that we want to know remains shrouded at this time.
Under other cicrcumstances, the press conference with the Rhode Island authorities last night — the mayor, the police chief, the Rhode Island governor and attorney general, the president of Brown — might have been played for comedy. The politicians celebrated Providence and Rhode Island. Long on happy talk and self-contgratulation, they seemed to me short on the facts of the case. Like comic buffoons, they are full of themselves. Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks provided a striking contrast.
The aptly named Providence Mayor Brett Smiley might be able to rescue Saturday Night Live from its doldrums. Brown President Christina Paxson could play Smiley’s clueless foil. Providence Police Chief Colonel Oscar Perez, Jr. seemed like a throwback to Garrett Morris’s Chico Escueala in the glory days of SNL.
Colonel, by the way, is the rank associated with the position of Providence police chief. All the authorities refered to him as “Colonel Perez.” “Chief Perez” doesn’t cut it in Providence.
In case we needed more fuel for our anger, it turns out that Valente was a beneficiary of our insane diversity visa program. issued a diversity visa in 2017 and became a legal permanent resident of the United States that year, according to immigration records in the affidavit filed by the Providence police. DHS Secretary “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on social media. Noem’s is a voice of sanity in this enraging case with more to come.
