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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Suspect In Brown University, MIT Shooting Found Dead; Australia PM Albanese Launches Gun Buyback Plan After Bondi Beach Attack; House Democrats Release Another Batch Of Epstein Photos; E.U. Agrees Hefty $105 billion Ukraine Loan Without Using Russian Assets. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 19, 2025 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[04:00:33]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. Welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Erica Hill. We are following the breaking news this morning in the mass shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Police now say that suspect is dead after taking his own life in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. Law enforcement swarmed that facility on Thursday. They found an abandoned car with a license plate matching one from a vehicle possibly rented by the Brown suspect. Here's more from Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. OSCAR L. PEREZ JR., PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND POLICE CHIEF: An individual was identified as Claudio Neves Valente, date of birth and he was a 48-year-old man. He was a Brown student. He was a Portuguese national and his last name known address was in Miami, Florida. And I will tell you that he took his own life tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So police say they believe Claudio Neves Valente acted alone in the shooting, which of course killed two students and wounded nine people at Brown University. That was on December 13th. They say he was found with a satchel, two firearms and also evidence that match what was found at the crime scene.

A U.S. attorney in Boston also says that Neves Valente is responsible for the killing of an MIT professor at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. That came just two days after the shooting at Brown. The president of Brown detailed detailing the suspect's history in Providence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTINA PAXSON, BROWN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001. He was admitted to Brown's graduate school to study in the masters of Science PhD program in physics beginning on September 1, 2000. And he took a leave of absence effective April 2001 before formally withdrawing effective July 31, 2003.

During his time at Brown, Neves Valente was enrolled only in physics classes. The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held within the Barus and Holley classrooms and labs. Now, detailed records indicating where specific courses were held don't extend back to 2001, but we can say that physics Classes typically require access to specialized equipment, including demonstration carts that are a fixed asset in some of Barus and Holley classrooms.

So I think it's safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities. As a PhD student in physics, he has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now from out of Massachusetts, former NYPD detective and law enforcement consultant Tom Verni. Tom, good to talk to you, as always. I mean, it was a remarkable turn of events that we saw in all of this being announced last night, that swarming, of course, of the storage facility, the fact that these two shootings are, in fact, related.

I mean, could you just walk me through, based on your experience and where we stand this morning, what stands out to you in terms of what's been made available publicly?

TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Good morning, Erica. And, wow, this has become quite a case. And my condolences to the families of those that have been affected by this, particularly those who were killed. It's an awful incident to occur at any time, but particularly now during the holidays. Right.

And I had said from the beginning that when the link was sort of connected between what happened at Brown and what happened between the MIT professor, I wasn't too surprised by that because I figured once the ballistics came back from both crime scenes and that was analyzed, you know, it was either a match or there wasn't. Right. Between the ballistics and DNA.

So, you know, the fact that the two were connected, because I thought it was a little odd that you had a shooting on a campus and there was this professor, I mean, it could have been two different cases. Right. Which they are technically.

[04:05:05]

But I wasn't surprised that there was a connection, number one. Number two, the proximity geographically to where both these incidents occurred and the subsequent discovery of this storage unit, all these locations are within 45 minutes to 90 minutes of each other, so clearly easily accessible by vehicle. Right. And the fact that now that we find out that the president down in Miami State.

So that's why I also was not surprised that it was taking the time that it took to get to the point where we are. And I understand that people were frustrated by the fact that this was going into four and five days. But, you know, as we've discussed over the years in a number of different cases, these cases are not solved in 43 minutes without the commercial like we see on TV shows.

HILL: Yes. It's such an important thing.

VERNI: Amount of work that's being done. And the fact that this case stands is just remarkable, in my opinion, that things have sort of concluded in the time that it did.

HILL: Yes, it's such an important point that this is, you know, these real life killings and shootings and horrific incidents do not wrap up neatly in a show as we're used to. And certainly in this sort of culture of immediacy that we live in, people are so used to getting information in the palm of their hand in a second. That also makes it challenging.

It also really underscores, based on what we learned last night, the importance of if you see something, say something, because, you know, as we learned, they're saying that this person, right, who came forward with some information following this Reddit post, really, in the words officials there, blew this case wide open.

I mean, just talk to us about how important it is in the span of an investigation that all of these, to your point, that all of these leads are followed, that all of these potential connections are checked out.

VERNI: Yes. Well, again, in a case like this, as we've talked about in prior cases over the years, especially when you're talking about such a high profile campus such as Brown and this professor working for MIT, there's a couple things going on. You had certainly campuses within the Northeast that were on high alert, Right. You're not too far from Yale.

I'm currently in an area here where I'm not too far from Williams College, which is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. So, all of the campuses were put on high alert, wondering if something was going to happen to their campus, first of all. Then you had this multi, you had local police involved, state police involved, and then federal authorities that were getting involved.

Now you have multiple agencies from all different parts of the Northeast coming together to try to get as much information as possible to start sort of having this collection of breadcrumbs as one of the members of the press conference was talking about last night, and sort of putting these pieces of the puzzle together. It's extremely important, the public input of information.

Yes, we can certainly go through video, but let me tell you, I've gone through video on cases. That's an extremely time consuming process of, you know, vetting out video. And now you're talking about video from hundreds, dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of cameras. That takes a long time to go through. And then you have people potentially calling in with potential leads, and now you have to investigate each one of those leads.

That also takes a lot of manpower to do and a lot of time to do. And what was making this case sort of muddied was that there was other information coming in that was not remotely helpful. And that, to me is just -- I could feel the frustration in those who were speaking at the news conference.

I've been there when you have this information coming in that is not even remotely helpful, but you have to follow those leads anyway. Right. And it just sort of retards the, you know, the progress of that investigation because now you're chasing false leads and then you have people posting things online which are not even remotely helpful.

So that's just --

HILL: Yes.

VERNI: -- adding to the frustration of trying to get to the information that you really need to start connecting those dots to lead to something fruitful.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. It was certainly a remarkable turn of events last night. Tom, always good to talk to you. Thank you.

VERNI: Thank you.

HILL: Brown University student Connie Erdozain spoke with my colleague Elex Michaelson a bit earlier about where things stand for the university now, the healing and the closure now that the suspect, of course, has been found dead.

[04:10:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNIE ERDOZAIN, BROWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: It definitely does give us all some closure, particularly for students who are still on campus right now. I think it's good to know that they are safe and the shooter is no longer at large.

But at the same time I am kind of concerned given that the suspect is now deceased and his identity being a noncitizen in the US. I'm concerned that many of the speculations that will kind of come out of this will be misconstrued given like the present anti-immigrant sentiments that are, you know, very prevalent in media in the U.S. right now. I'm concerned that this will do more harm than good to particularly international students at Brown right now, but also just the immigrant community in the U.S. at large.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: We had a very lengthy press conference, in fact, two different press conferences tonight. What was your reaction when watching?

ERDOZAIN: Well, I watched the initial press conference and while I'm so grateful, as I bet many people in the Brown community are for, you know, the efforts that have gone into the investigation, I'm also a little bit dissatisfied with the confidence around our safety after this tragedy.

The governor referred to the shooting as, you know, these things happen and that, you know, our safety was like kind of, you know, in good hands in Rhode Island. And I don't think that's necessarily something that the Brown community needs to hear right now or at least not the full picture of what's happening because I think people want preventative measures to be in place. People want action.

And given that this shooting was one of the first, if not the first school shootings in Rhode Island, I think we all just want to hear that the state is doing more to protect our security in the future and prevent such gun violence from arising.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: As we continue to follow developments out of Australia, there is new action there following the mass shooting and tragedy. The country's prime Minister announcing a national firearm buyback plan after Sunday's Bondi Beach shooting which left 15 people dead at a Hanukkah event, dozens injured. Of course, the government will now buy back surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms in an effort to get more guns off the streets. The prime Minister also declaring Sunday to be a national day of reflection.

Meantime, hundreds of surfers and swimmers holding a paddle out in the waters off of Bondi Beach. It's a tradition often carried out when the community suffers a loss. Surfers who participated say they felt it to be a powerful show of unity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was magic just to see the community back together. What do you reckon, mate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it was amazing. Amazing. I think crowd exceeded expectations, but that's what it's all about, right? It's pretty cool to see Bondi back open. Everyone getting back together. We're coming back. We're coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was being said out there --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's tricky to hear when there's almost a thousand people out there, but I think everyone was sort of reflecting in their own way and just seeing the energy back in the community. It was beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Well, it is now a little after 4:00 a.m. in Washington. The Justice Department under pressure to meet today's deadline to publicly release their investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein. The top House Democrat says Congress expects the Justice Department to fully comply with the Epstein files Transparency Act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Related to full and complete disclosure of the Epstein files. We do expect compliance, but if the Department of Justice does not comply with what is federal law at this point, there will be strong bipartisan pushback.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Lawmakers meantime, releasing more photos from the late sex offenders estate. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee publicly shared dozens of additional images, including pictures of an unidentified female body covered with quotes from the novel Lolita, as well as photos of Bill Gates, Woody Allen, philosopher Noam Chomsky and conservative firebrand Steve Bannon. CNN's Annie Grayer has further details now on just what was released and learned.

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ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPOTER: On Thursday, Democrats on the House Oversight committee released over 60 photos that it had received from the Jeffrey Epstein estate. The committee has over 95,000 images that it is combing through and Democrats and have released smaller batches of it.

Now, on Thursday, the release showed just how connected Epstein was to so many powerful men, including Bill Gates and philosopher Noam Chomsky. There's also photos of what appears to be a female's body with quotes of the book Lolita on it, which is about a man's obsession with a 12-year-old girl.

[04:15:09]

There's also snippets of a text conversation where individuals are discussing sending a woman for money. There's also foreign passports that appear to belonging to women. Now, there's no context around these photos. We don't know when they were taken or by whom.

Democrats added redactions for anyone that they believed could be a potential victim of Epstein's crimes. CNN has reached out to everyone who was identified in the photo released on Thursday and is waiting for more. Annie Grayer, CNN, Washington.

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HILL: Ukraine has secured crucial financing from the European Union. Moscow though also getting some good news from a summit in Brussels. We'll explain both.

Plus, Russia's president holding his major PR event, the annual news conference where he often takes questions from the public.

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[04:20:24]

HILL: Ukraine securing desperately needed cash for its operations next two years in its war with Russia. The European Union announcing that deal to provide key with more than $100 billion. It's important to note though, these funds will not come from Russia's frozen financial assets. That of course was one of the options on the table. And the news was welcomed in Moscow which praised what it called voices of reason for preventing the illegal use of its assets. Clare Sebastian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: European leaders had promised that they would not leave this summit until they had a clear plan as to how to fund Ukraine through the next two years. And they kept that promise. In the early hours of Friday morning, after a marathon day of talks, they came to a deal.

But it wasn't what some had hoped or even expected. The big focus coming into this was whether or not they would be able to use the cash balances from Russia's frozen assets here in Europe to fund a loan for Ukraine. They haven't managed to reach a deal on that. Instead they're going to borrow on the capital markets and that will be guaranteed to by unspent funds in the E.U. budget.

Either way, Ukraine will not have to pay this back until the war ends and Russia pays reparations. So European leaders here were keen to paint this as a win.

ANTONIO COSTA, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT: The message we are sending to Russia today is crystal clear. First, you have not achieved your objectives in Ukraine. Second, Europe stands with Ukraine today, tomorrow and as long as necessary.

BART DE WEVER, BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER: We left Brussels divided today, Europe would have walked away from geopolitical relevance. Would have been a total disaster.

SEBASTIAN: So Europe has passed this test of its strength and unity. But this whole process did amplify divisions within the bloc. And it suddenly came down to the wire for Ukraine, which by the spring would be facing a cash crunch so large that its president who was here today, President Zelenskyy, warned that it might even have to cut back on its critical drone production. That crisis for now seems to be averted and Ukraine goes into the next phase of peace talks with the US in a stronger position. Clare Sebastian, CNN in Brussels.

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HILL: Vladimir Putin is holding his annual end of year news conference in Moscow. This is usually a major PR event for the Russian president where he takes questions from the media and also Russian citizens. Putin often goes on for a couple speaking about a wide variety of issues. For many people in Russia, it is must see TV. We are monitoring that

event. We're going to keep you posted if there are any major developments or statements to come out of it.

Meantime, President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff is expected to talk about Gaza with Mideast partners while he is in Miami. A White House official telling CNN, Witkoff is set to meet with senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey and they're set to discuss the next phase of the Gaza peace plan.

The U.S. meantime, sanctioning two more judges from the International Criminal Court. This move is just the latest step by the Trump administration to punish the court over its efforts to investigate Israel's conduct during the war with Hamas in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the court is attempting to prosecute and arrest Israeli nationals without Israel's consent. The ICC, for its part, denouncing these new sanctions, calling them a quote, flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution. Both the U.S. and Israel have repeatedly denied the ICC's authority to investigate either country's conduct.

Still to come here a one on one interview with the Providence police chief about the case that seemed to confound investigators for the better part of a week.

Plus, U.S. President Donald Trump signing a key defense funding bill. Turns out, though not everything is a political win for the White House.

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[04:28:50]

HILL: Welcome back. I'm Erica Hill. You're in the CNN Newsroom. Dramatic new developments in the hunt for the Brown University shooter as police work now to determine a motive. At this hour, officials say it's not clear why. The suspect fatally shot two people at Brown last weekend and then killed an MIT professor on Monday.

The suspect, what we do know is a Portuguese national, Claudio Neves Valente, who was found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday after killing himself. Neves Valente had completed three semesters of graduate school at Brown, studying physics, but did not receive a degree. That was some 25 years ago. Investigators say they did track him down after someone provided the police with critical clues that blew the case open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NEROHA, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: That person came forward to two Providence police officers over on the east side and said he had information that he was that person and he had information that could help this case.

And I remember last night watching his interview and he blew this case right open. He blew it open. And that person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence.