(Providence) The man suspected of killing two people and injuring several others at Brown University was found dead in a New Hampshire warehouse, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
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Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Brown student of Portuguese descent, was found dead Thursday evening after suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said at a news conference.
Investigators believe Valente is responsible for both the Brown shooting and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor who was shot to death in his Brookline home on Monday, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities have not yet officially confirmed any connection between the two shootings.
The official, who was not authorized to publicly release details of the ongoing investigation, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Two people were killed and nine others injured Saturday in a shooting at Brown University. The investigation took a new turn Thursday when authorities said they were examining a link between the shooting at Brown and an attack two days later near Boston that left MIT professor Nuno FG Loureiro dead.
The FBI previously said it was not aware of any connection between the cases.
Nearly a week has passed since the shooting in Brown. In Providence, frustration grew over the attacker’s flight and the lack of a clear image of his face.
PHOTO REBA SALDANHA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
People near the warehouse where the suspect was found
After Wednesday’s press conference, a second person, identified near the suspect, came forward and helped unravel the mystery, revealed Peter Neronha, Attorney General of Rhode Island.
“When we find the solution, we find it. This person led us to the car and the identity of the suspect,” Mr. Neronha said.
Although Brown officials say there are 1,200 cameras on campus, the attack occurred in an older part of the engineering building that has few, if any, cameras. Investigators believe the shooter entered and exited through a door onto a residential street bordering campus, which could explain why Brown’s cameras did not capture that person.
What lessons can be learned from previous surveys? In these types of high-profile, targeted attacks, shooters typically commit suicide or are killed or arrested by police, says Katherine Schweit, a former FBI agent and expert on mass shootings. When they manage to escape, the search can be long.
During the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, it took investigators four days to apprehend the two brothers who carried it out. In 2023, Army reservist Robert Card was found dead, apparently by suicide, two days after killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in Lewiston, Maine.
The man accused of killing conservative political figure Charlie Kirk in September turned himself in about a day and a half after the attack on the Utah Valley University campus. Finally, Luigi Mangione, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan the previous year, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
MIT mourns the loss of an esteemed professor
Mr. Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and last year was named head of the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he worked to advance clean energy technologies and other research. The center, one of MIT’s largest labs, had more than 250 people in seven buildings when he took over. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.
He grew up in Viseu, central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning a doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at a nuclear fusion institute in Lisbon before joining MIT, the university said.
“He shined as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his eloquence and compassion,” Dennis Whyte, an engineering professor who previously directed MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.
Mr Loureiro had expressed hope that his work would help shape the future.
“It is no exaggeration to say that MIT is the place where we find solutions to humanity’s greatest problems,” Mr. Loureiro said when he was appointed head of the plasma science laboratory last year. Fusion energy will change the course of human history. »
