Transcripts: Suspected Brown University, Brookline shooter confessed in videos, DOJ says

Local News

“I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” Claudio Neves Valente said in Portuguese, according to translated transcripts released by the FBI.

Claudio Neves Valente, the man suspected of shooting and killing two Brown University students and an MIT professor last month, had little remorse or a clear motive for the shootings, according to transcripts of videos he made after the shootings released Tuesday by the Department of Justice. 

“I also don’t regret what I did… I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me,” Neves Valente said in Portuguese, according to the transcript.

Neves Valente recorded the four videos in his Salem, New Hampshire storage facility, where he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“Let’s see if I’ve got the balls to do this to myself now, because it was hard as hell to do it to all of those people, man,” Neves Valente said, according to the translated transcripts. “I envy those who have no difficulty doing it, and these people exist. That’s what I really envy. The rest means nothing to me. Let’s see if I have the courage.”

Neves Valente, a Portuguese national, was a former Brown University student in physics, officials said when his body was found in late December. He was accused of firing more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun in a classroom inside the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building.

Neves Valente addressed the Brown University shooting, saying in the fourth video that he had “plenty of opportunities, especially this semester” to commit the Brown shooting, but he “always chickened out.”

In the somewhat rambling monologues, Neves Valente lamented that he had injured eye, which the DOJ said happened when he shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline. He also addressed being confronted by a man who later led police to him.

“Since I was almost confronted by a guy there that day… not almost, I actually was confronted and he knew my… my … my… license plate, I honestly never thought it would take them so long to find me,” the transcript said.

Neves Valente also indicated that he has “no hatred toward America, but I also have no love for it… I have no love.”

“I have no interest in being famous. I don’t give a damn about how you judge me or what you think of me. The overwhelming majority of things that are going to be said, I can already imagine,” Neves Valente said. “In fact, I was already reading, uhm, I particularly like Trump’s sh–, to have called me an animal, which is true. I am an animal and he is also.”

Neves Valente and Loureiro attended the same academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000 and likely knew each other, Massachusetts prosecutors said.

In the transcripts, Neves Valente did not directly address his former classmate or the Brookline shooting.

“I already know that you are going to say that I am mentally ill, or some sh– like that. That is all nonsense,” he said. “I think the world cannot be redeemed. To sum it all up, that is it.”

Seemingly addressing authorities, Neves Valente said he wanted to know “if you are going to post this, maybe I would prefer that you don’t.”

“I don’t care at all about being famous, having a legacy, and sh– like that, manifestos and f–ing stuff,” Neves Valente said. “I have absolutely no patience for that. Even though I would have a lot to say and write, I don’t care. I’m not going to give you the right to that.”

In a final video, Neves Valente addressed online rumors that he said “Allah Akbar or some sh– like that.” Instead, he said he thought he was in an empty room he had entered before laughing at the students.

“I do not remember having said anything. If I did say something, it must have been some kind of an – an exclamation,” Neves Valente said.

The DOJ said the investigation into Neves Valente’s motives is ongoing.

“Neves Valente showed no remorse during the recordings; on the contrary, he exposed his true nature when he blamed innocent, unarmed children for their deaths at his hand and grumbled about a self-inflicted injury he suffered when he shot the MIT professor at close range,” the DOJ’s statement said.

Read the entire transcript here.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.