Suspected Brown shooter was ‘socially awkward’ and complained moving to the United States, college classmate says
Claudio Valente, the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting, was “socially awkward” and “complained about moving to the United States,” his former classmate said.
Scott Watson, who earned his PhD in physics from the Ivy League university in 2005, said that he took classes and became close with Valente, who police said died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New Hampshire on Thursday. Valente was enrolled at the school between 2000 and 2003.
“During his time at Brown, I was essentially his only friend,” Watson told The Independent. “He was socially awkward, and so was I, which I think is why we connected.”
Watson said that he first met Valente, who is from Portugal, during their orientation, when he spotted the now-deceased man sitting alone.
“He often complained about moving to the United States and about the university,” Watson, a physics professor at Syracuse University, said. “He would say the classes were too easy—honestly, for him they were. He already knew most of the material and was genuinely impressive. I remember him getting irritated about the quality of food on campus, especially the lack of high-quality fish.”
He said that he would go out to dinner with Valente at a Portuguese restaurant in Providence, adding that he “could be kind and gentle.” Equally, though, Valente sometimes grew frustrated “about courses, professors, and living conditions.”
Watson also said he recalled Valente making derogatory comments about a fellow classmate from Brazil.
“Claudio would insult and call him his slave,” Watson said. “I had to break up a fight once.”
“The last time I spoke with him, we walked to his apartment and I tried to convince him not to leave,” Watson said. “He refused, and that was the last time I heard from him. He told me he was returning to Portugal, though it now appears that may not have been the case.”
The mass shooting at Brown University on Saturday left two people dead and nine others injured. Valente is also suspected of killing an MIT professor two days later.
Police said they were able to track down Valente thanks, in part, to a Reddit poster, who claimed to have seen Valente shortly after the shooting.
