Mass Shooting at Brown

Another article mentions that Neves actually had better grades than the MIT professor in portugal - truly must have been brilliant- so sad. What could have been - soo many lives devastated.

There’s goes the ā€œflunked outā€ theory.

But then why kill the guy who was doing well if he could have had it himself?

Hopefully more will be revealed.

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Maybe the MIT professor had a better life in not the better grades. Happy family, supportive friends, a joy for life. Although Valente got accepted to Brown, maybe Mr. MIT got a better grad program based on his personality or a great paper.

I don’t think we’ll ever know.

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What I’ve read is that the MIT prof got his PhD in Portugal and then came here to do research at Princeton.

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Yes. And wasn’t Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, brilliant as well?

Sounds like another case of mental illness.

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That’s just who I was thinking of too.

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Are you saying that you chose Syracuse because of Pan Am 103 or you regret choosing it because you were there when it happened?

I went to SUNY Oswego and two of my friends died on Pan Am 103 - Colleen Brunner and Lynne Hartunian. It was my junior year. Colleen was set to move into the house I was sharing, and Lynne and I were student advisors. Five more of my friends were supposed to be on Pan Am 103 but were bumped and stuck at the London airport as all of it was unfolding (they were on a study abroad). Years later, two acquaintances died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. I never once considered that I chose the wrong college.

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The contrast in photographs could not have been more graphic: the MIT professor looked happy, friendly, and younger than his age; the shooter was over-weight and walked like he was arthritic. Kind of a sad, modern-day Prince and the Pauper.

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As noted, we all think, are wired, differently. Sorry for your losses.

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Yeah, it did make me think of this a lot. brilliant, disturbed, loner.

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Sorry, but I honestly don’t understand how a terrorist bombing that occurred 2000 miles away from campus should have factored into your choice of attending Syracuse, nor how it justifies telling the kids at Brown that they all ā€œchose the wrong college.ā€

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There was a group of 35 Syracuse students on that flight. Tragic.

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In the end, my point was simply - if you were killed or even shot, if you knew this could happen, you’d have gone elsewhere. For those this will traumatize for life and it will many who are on campus, it will carry with them forever, just like at Va Tech when they lost 32 in 2007, statistically a far worse shooting than Brown.

As I noted, no one can know this up front so I understand the silliness of the statement.

But, of course, in the end, many go to their dream schools - and nightmares sadly happen.

Don’t mean to detract from the discussion. But sadly thousands and thousands of college students carry very sad memories.

It’s scary to think Va Tech was just 18 years ago - seems a lifetime ago. I’m sad for who is next - and unfortunately there will be a next. I’m elated my kids didn’t experience a violent act during their time in college.

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FYI -

Choque e Incredulidade: O Passado de ClƔudio Valente e o Crime em Boston (in portuguese but easily translatable)

Apparently he worked as a web developer in Portugal after brown before his US visa in 2017 - what he did in the US after that still seems a mystery: Choque e Incredulidade: O Passado de ClƔudio Valente e o Crime em Boston

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May your friend’s memory be a blessing.

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My GS had just moved into his sophomore dorm at Rice last year when a co-ed in the same building was shot and killed in her dorm room. Horror.

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There have been horrible incidents and tragedies everywhere. If we lived our lives trying to avoid a tragedy we would just lock ourselves away in our basement. Then again the house could catch on fire.

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Indeed. Also, if we include all the traumatizing assaults that occur on campuses each year, nobody would go to any college. :person_shrugging: We minimize these in our collective consciousness as they are so common. However, there are numerous sexual assaults and horrifying hazing incidents (which occasionally result in death).. These cause PTSD, too, and can also for their friends who are close to them and may have to testify, etc.

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And for the most part, college campuses are remarkably safe places. It is probably because these incidents are rare and tragic that they make the news. There are shootings and murders throughout the country on a daily basis that don’t make the national news.
Many if not most students and grads have wonderful college memories.

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Here is the affadavit/arrest warrant for the shooter: https://riag.ri.gov/media/8021/download

Some have posited elsewhere (another site) that Valente may have had some recent contact with Loureiro and feared that Loureiro would recognize him from the publicized photos/videos so liked him to keep him quiet. Just a theory (someone else’s but it is a reasonable one).