McDonnell: Recent Campus Violence Shows NH Needs To Act

By State Rep. Valerie McDonnell, NH Journal

Thursday night, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was found dead of self-inflicted wounds in Salem, N.H. Valente was responsible for two deaths and nine injuries at Brown University, as well as the death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at his home in Brookline, Mass.

The Salem Police Department, in cooperation with the FBI and other authorities, acted quickly on reports that Valente was inside a storage unit at an Extra Space Storage facility at the intersection of Hampshire Road and South Broadway (Route 28). The diligence and response time of the Salem Police Department helped keep our community safe in the wake of the tragedies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Had the Providence Police and Brown University campus security acted with the same urgency, I believe these tragedies could have been prevented. For instance, many campus exterior doors were left unlocked during final exams, and the building in which the shooting took place had limited camera coverage. Even more troubling, Brown University was not a member of the Providence Police Department’s Real-Time Crime Center.

Perhaps that decision resulted from the “defund the police” rhetoric rampant in the area, although I can only speculate. When life-saving crime-prevention resources were available, why would the university decline to participate, leaving students vulnerable?

Had Rhode Island authorities acted with the same efficiency as the Salem Police Department, they might have discovered sooner that Valente had been in New England since October. The 48-year-old Portuguese national, a lawful permanent resident, resided in Miami but had rented the Salem storage unit since November. Valente previously attended Brown University, dropped out in the early 2000s, and was a former classmate of his final victim.

The Providence Police failed to connect the dots in a timely manner and only acted after receiving a tip from a Brown alumnus. By allowing the shooter to escape, authorities failed in their obligation to the public and enabled him to kill another victim two days later.

My condolences are with the families of the victims who will be missing their loved ones this holiday season. This violence should never be tolerated, and for their sake, we must ensure nothing similar happens in New Hampshire schools. This incident was already too close to home, considering the nightmare ended in Salem, my hometown.

School safety has always been a priority for me while serving on the state House Education Policy Committee. This legislative session, I am a co-sponsor of the Protecting College Students Act, which would empower young people to exercise their constitutional right to self-defense under the Second Amendment and existing state statutes.

We held a press conference earlier this week where the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Sam Farrington (R-Rochester), described campus carry as an important preventative measure. I agree. In light of these recent tragedies, it is imperative that we pass House Bill 1793-FN to help keep New Hampshire students safe from violence.

State Rep. Valerie McDonnell is a Republican representing Salem in the N.H. House of Representatives. She wrote this for NHJournal.com.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.