The silence of the Brown University campus shattered last week with gunfire, leaving two students dead and nine critically injured. The perpetrator, identified as 48-year-old Claudio Neves-Valente, ended his own life days later, discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
Authorities have been piecing together the events leading up to the tragedy, grappling with the unsettling details emerging from witness accounts. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha revealed a particularly bizarre element of the attack: reports that the shooter emitted “barking noises” as he opened fire.
Initial, unconfirmed reports suggested Neves-Valente may have shouted “Allah Akbar” during the shooting. However, Neronha clarified that the information remained unclear, with some witnesses reporting no vocalizations at all. The “barking noise” account, though perplexing, was the only consistent auditory detail beyond silence.
Neves-Valente was a Portuguese national who arrived in the United States in 2017 through the diversity visa lottery. He had previously been a student at Brown University, adding another layer of complexity to the investigation and raising questions about his past connection to the institution.
The discovery of his body brought a somber end to the manhunt, but it did little to quell the grief and confusion surrounding the senseless act of violence. Investigators continue to explore the shooter’s motives, seeking to understand the forces that drove him to commit such a devastating crime.
The unsettling detail of the “barking noises” remains a haunting enigma, a strange and disturbing element in a tragedy already filled with sorrow and unanswered questions. It underscores the unpredictable and often incomprehensible nature of violence, leaving the community searching for meaning in the aftermath.
