The man responsible for last month’s deadly shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor two days later admitted to both attacks in a series of videos, according to CNN, citing US authorities. Investigators later found the videos, and transcripts were released on Tuesday by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Brown University Gunman confessed in videos
According to CNN, videos were discovered inside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. The gunman, identified as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, reportedly took his own life days after the shootings. Officials did not say exactly when the videos were recorded.
The recordings were originally in Portuguese, Valente’s native language. The Justice Department translated the transcripts into English. The office released written transcripts of four videos. In them, Valente did not explain why he carried out the attacks. He also did not express any apology or remorse.
Two students, Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, were killed during the shooting at Brown University. A third victim, Nuno F. G. Loureiro, an MIT professor, was later shot and killed at his home near Boston. Authorities believe all three killings are connected.
Planned the Brown attack for years
In one of the videos, Valente said he did not care about becoming famous or being remembered for what he did. He said that while he had “a lot to say and write,” he did not have the patience to create a manifesto.
He also revealed that he had been thinking about carrying out an attack for more than six semesters. Valente said he had many chances to act earlier but backed out each time, saying he “always chickened out,” according to CNN. Later in the same video, Valente said his “only objective was to leave more or less on my own terms,” adding that it was “already long overdue.” He added, “to say that I was extraordinarily satisfied, no, but I also don’t regret what I did.”
Over the course of more than 11 minutes of video, Valente spoke about different topics. He kept complaining about unnamed people, talked about how the media portrayed him after the shootings, and described what he saw inside the Brown University auditorium where the attack took place.
Valente said he felt no regret over the shootings. The only thing he complained about, he said, was a serious eye injury he suffered after being hit by a shell round. “I don’t give a damn about how you judge me or what you think of me,” he said in one recording reviewed by CNN.
What Valente says happened inside the auditorium
Valente claimed he never intended to carry out the shooting in a large auditorium at Brown University. “It all went wrong,” he said, explaining that he had planned to do it in a “regular room,” not an auditorium.
He said that when he entered the auditorium, he saw only one man inside and believed everyone else had escaped through an emergency exit once the shooting began. Valente said he did not realise that several students were still hiding inside the room. Later, he said those who hid inside were “kind of stupid” for not using the emergency exit.
Officials said the investigation into what led to the shootings is still ongoing, and no further details about Valente’s motive have been released so far.