The suspect was identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente (also referred to as Neves-Valente), a 48-year-old Portuguese national and U.S. permanent resident since September 2017, with a last known address in Miami, Florida. Valente was a former Brown student, enrolled in the physics Ph.D. program from fall 2000 to spring 2001. - He had known links to murdered MIT professor Nuno Loureiro.

On December 17, 2025, Providence Police Department officials, alongside Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, Brown University representatives, and Mayor Brett Smiley, held a press conference to update the public on the investigation into the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University's Barus and Holley engineering building. The attack left two students dead and nine injured during a voluntary study session. Five days in, no suspect has been namedd and no motive est