Brown, MIT suspect had 200 rounds, laser sights as authorities feared hit list: US attorney
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley speaks with ABC News, Dec. 19, 2025. ABC News
(BOSTON, Mass.) — It was Thursday morning when investigators definitively determined the same individual opened fire on a study group at Brown University and, two days later, murdered an MIT professor — raising fears among law enforcement officials that the killer may have had other intended targets, according to the top federal law enforcement official in Boston.
“We had no idea if he had a hit list and these were just the first two stops on his tour,” Leah Foley, the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told ABC News on Friday.
Foley said that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in the New Hampshire storage unit with two 9mm Glock firearms equipped with green laser sights, five magazines with nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and nearly $900 in cash. In his car, investigators said they found more ammunition and body armor.
“This was highly premeditated and he was definitely equipped for the mission that he sought out to do,” Foley said.
Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
On Friday, an autopsy was underway to determine how long the suspect had been dead by the time his body was found. Ballistics tests and DNA tests were underway.
Investigators were also searching through the contents of three USB thumb drives found in the suspect’s car to see if they contained clues about a motive. It is unclear at this time if the suspect had any other potential targets, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Foley said investigators believe Brown University and the MIT professor — Nuno F.G. Loureiro — were intentional targets, but they do not know why.
“I don’t know that even if he had explained why, that that would be an answer that is satisfactory to anyone,” Foley said. “He was evil.”
The possibility that the killer could have struck again infused the manhunt with new urgency. Federal agents fanned out across four New England states and posted up at airports in Boston and Hartford.
“We had no idea if he was going to act again in New England or try to leave New England,” Foley said.
Neves Valente had already switched license plates once, according to authorities. In the car, investigators said they found another expired plate.
The suspect was a former Brown graduate student who attended the school some 25 years ago, school officials said. He had enrolled as a Ph.D student in Brown’s physics program in 2000 and attended for less than a year, before going on a leave of absence and then withdrawing.
Neves Valente and Loureiro were both Portuguese nationals and had attended the same physics engineering program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the school confirmed to ABC News.
Authorities are investigating a shooting in Los Angeles, Oct. 21, 2025. KABC
(LOS ANGELES) — An undocumented immigrant and a law enforcement officer were wounded when officers fired shots during a targeted enforcement traffic stop in Los Angeles, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.
The immigrant had allegedly tried to “evade arrest” by using his car to ram a law enforcement vehicle, which prompted the officers to fire “defensive shots,” striking him in the elbow, the DHS official said.
A law enforcement officer was also struck in the hand by a ricochet bullet, the official said. Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the officer was a U.S. marshal.
Both were taken to the hospital, the official said.
DHS said the undocumented immigrant “had previously escaped from custody.”
“Resisting arrest puts the safety of illegal aliens, law enforcement, and the public at risk,” the official said.
Passengers crowd at Los Angeles International Airport as the Independence Day holiday approaches on July 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (I RYU/VCG via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — This Christmas and New Year’s holiday period is expected to be the busiest on record.
More than 122 million people are expected to travel between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1 — a 2.2% jump from last year’s record high of 119.7 million travelers, according to AAA.
Here’s what you need to know before you head to the airport or hit the road:
Air travel About 8.03 million people are expected to fly within the U.S. over the holidays — a 2.3% increase from last year, according to AAA.
Florida, Southern California and Hawaii are topping the domestic destinations list for the holidays, according to AAA’s booking data, showing many travelers have decided to forgo a white Christmas for fun in the sun.
United Airlines said it is expecting its busiest winter holiday season ever, with the Saturday after Christmas — Dec. 27 — forecast to be the airline’s most crowded day.
American Airlines said its planning for four flights to depart each minute over its holiday period, from Dec. 18 through Jan. 5. American said its busiest day will be Friday, Dec. 19, followed by Sunday, Jan. 4.
Road travel About 109.5 million people are forecast to travel by car over the holidays, up 2% from last year, AAA said.
The weekend before Christmas — which falls on Saturday, Dec. 20, and Sunday, Dec. 21 — is expected to be especially busy, and so is the day after Christmas, Friday, Dec. 26, according to analytics company INRIX.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Day — which both fall on Thursdays — are anticipated to be the quietest days on the roads, INRIX said.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — Minutes after publicly identifying the suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox condemned social media.
“Social media is a cancer on our society right now,” Cox told reporters during a press conference two days after Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University. “I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass.”
Sen. James Langford, R-Okla., echoed such criticism days later. “Social media is always pushing who’s the angriest, who’s the loudest, who says the craziest thing, that’s what gets repeated over and over and over again,” Langford said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Co., described social media as “deeply corrosive.”
Some experts who spoke to ABC News blamed social media for amplifying public rancor and spreading graphic imagery, but they stopped short of identifying online platforms as a lone, direct cause of political violence. Social media has likely worsened a risk rooted in factors like social discord, inflammatory rhetoric from prominent figures and the availability of firearms, they said.
“Social media is certainly a contributing factor, but it’s like pouring gasoline on a fire — it’s not the fire itself,” Robert Pape, a political scientist and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago, told ABC News.
On Sept. 10, Kirk was shot and killed while on stage at Utah Valley University for the first stop on his latest speaking tour of college campuses. The alleged gunman, identified by police as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested almost 48 hours later and faces several charges, including aggravated murder.
Robinson’s apparent use of the online platform Discord and video games drew attention to whether such online networks may play a role in stoking political violence, though details of their possible impact on Robinson remain limited.
Discord confirmed that two hours before Robinson was taken into custody, he was posting on the platform and allegedly told a small group of friends: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all … It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the Discord message during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, saying that the FBI is investigating “anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat” with Robinson. Patel said there are “a lot more” than 20 people linked to Robinson on Discord, “and we’re running them all down. … Every single one.”
X did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did TikTok. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Discord told ABC News the company has not “found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord.”
“We continue to work closely with the FBI and local authorities, and will continue to deliver prompt responses to their requests for assistance,” Discord added.
Discord forbids “hateful conduct or the use of hate speech” on the platform, the company’s website says. “We define hate speech as any expression that degrades, vilifies, or dehumanizes individuals, incites hostility towards specific groups, or promotes harm based on protected characteristics.”
Last year, a Meta spokesperson told researchers at New York University: “We want our platforms to be a place where people can safely express themselves. That’s why we take action on content, like hate speech, bullying, or harassment, that violates our Community Standards and why we continue to invest in new technologies and methods to help protect people on our services.”
Lisa Hayes, head of safety public policy and senior counsel for the Americas at TikTok, told the NYU researchers the company takes down more than 98% of material posted by hateful organizations and individuals and works with experts “to keep ahead of evolving trends.”
On its website, X says: “We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized. For this reason, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals or groups with abuse based on their perceived membership in a protected category. “
Video footage of the fatal shooting circulated widely on social media platforms in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s killing, raising concerns among some observers about the effects that may result from mass exposure to such graphic imagery.
Some experts underscored the elevated risk of political violence created by social media, saying its algorithms favor provocative posts that induce user engagement but exacerbate political division. Additionally, in some cases, social media can largely replace a user’s in-person interactions, leaving them socially isolated, some experts added.
“We are at a very dangerous moment with social media, especially having a large population of highly alienated individuals spending most, if not all, of their time in this virtual space,” Walter Scheirer, a professor of engineering at Notre Dame University who studies online disinformation, told ABC News.
Pape, who regularly conducts surveys on political violence in partnership with NORC, said his research has found heavy users of social media — those who spend six to eight hours on the platforms each day — are more likely to support political violence. However, such individuals are relatively unusual, making up as little as 10% of those who support political violence, Pape said.
Last year, researchers at New York University and Public Circle Research, a private firm, who reviewed 400 studies related to the topic, found social media is “exploited to facilitate political intimidation and violence.”
“These conclusions are quite different from saying that social media alone causes political violence,” the researchers noted, citing other factors like partisan cable news and attackers prone to violence.
Experts who spoke to ABC News also pointed to other factors behind a rise in political violence, such as hostile rhetoric put forward by public figures and access to guns.
“Social media allows for the amplification of a message that’s already happening. If we look at the rhetoric in the U.S. over time, the language politicians are using to describe their domestic political opponents has gotten much harsher and more aggressive. Social media isn’t the cause of that, but it can amplify those voices,” Thomas Zeitzoff, a professor of justice, law and criminology at American University, told ABC News.
Some experts cited previous waves of political violence, such as a spate of assassinations in the late 1960s, which predated online platforms.
Robert Shapiro, a professor of government and public affairs at Columbia University, questioned whether the removal of social media would meaningfully reduce the likelihood of political violence. “There’s more than enough political conflict out there to provoke violence,” Shapiro told ABC News.
The killing of Kirk comes amid a wave of political violence. Over recent months, a gunman fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home and another Minnesota state lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded by the same gunman.
During that same period, two staff members at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed after an event at the city’s Jewish Museum.
Over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump survived two assassination attempts.
“This is something we’re not used to seeing in our country,” Pape said. “It hasn’t been our normal, but it’s our new normal now.”
