A longtime custodian at Brown University says he repeatedly noticed concerning behavior by the man who later carried out a deadly campus attack and that he alerted campus security about it more than once in the weeks leading up to the shooting in a report by the New York Post.
Derek Lisi, who has worked at Brown for about 15 years, told police that he saw Claudio Neves Valente acting strangely nearly a dozen times before the December 13th shooting. According to Lisi, Valente was seen pacing hallways, peering into classrooms, and seemingly “casing” parts of the campus, only leaving when he was spotted. On at least two occasions, Lisi said he told the same campus security officer about what he was observing, but it’s not clear whether any follow-up action was taken.
Valente, a former Brown graduate student, returned to the campus and opened fire in a lecture hall during a study session, killing two students and wounding others before fleeing the scene. Two days later, authorities believe he traveled to Massachusetts and killed a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the professor’s home before dying by suicide.
The shooter’s motivations remain under investigation. Some acquaintances have described longstanding personal grievances Valente held against the university and the MIT professor, though federal and local authorities have not publicly confirmed a definitive motive.
Brown University officials and the private security firm contracted to patrol the campus have not responded to questions about Lisi’s claims or whether the earlier reports of suspicious behavior were documented or acted upon.
