Brown University shooting suspect Claudio Valente is accused of killing an MIT professor in Massachusetts days after the shooting at the Rhode Island university.
“On December 15, he murdered MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro’s home in Brookline, Massachussets,” US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Leah Foley, said at a news conference in Boston on Thursday evening.
Foley added that Valente previously attended the same academic program as the MIT professor in Portugal, between 1995 and 2000.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies went to the last known address for the Brown University shooting suspect, which records indicated was a Miami residence in 2001, to ask questions, said Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez Jr.
Officers went to the residence to talk to “individual staff” to see if they had any connections or associations with the suspect, the chief said at a news conference tonight.
The person who was seen in one of the surveillance videos released by authorities had confronted the suspect earlier in the day, officials said.
The person had observed the suspect earlier in the day, Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez, Jr. said. Once the person confronted the suspect and started talking to him, the suspect asked why the person was harassing him and ran, Perez said.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha added later that the person had an interaction with the suspect in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building bathroom. The person followed him out because he didn’t belong there, Neronha said the person told police.
It isn’t clear what exactly the suspect said to the person, according to Neronha. Some witnesses reported nothing said while some others said the suspect barked, but it’s unclear what happened, he said.
The suspect in the Brown University shooting changed the license plates on the rental car he was using, which made it more challenging for investigators to locate him, said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
A witness had provided a license plate to authorities probing the Brown University shooting, who then investigated the car and its past drivers. This allowed them to identify the same vehicle of interest in the MIT professor killing.
Investigators then located the car in Salem, New Hampshire after a license plate reader flagged one of the plates that matched the car, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
Guns found at the scene of the Brown University shooting suspect’s death will be tested for ballistic and DNA evidence even though officials are sure the search for a perpetrator is over, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
While the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting was found dead tonight, questions surrounding the incident and motive still remain.
The reason why Brown University in particular was targeted “is a mystery,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a news conference.
Suspect Claudio Valente was a former student who was enrolled at Brown University in the Master of Science PHD program studying physics, the university’s president Christina Hull Paxson said.
He was enrolled from September 2000 to April 2001, when he took a leave of absence before formally withdrawing in July 2003, she said.
Valente was only enrolled in physics classes during his time at the university, and the majority of those classes would’ve been held in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, where the shooting occurred, Paxson said.
He did not have an active affiliation with the university, she added.
The vehicle connected to the suspect in the Brown University shooting that was found abandoned in Salem, New Hampshire was a rental, said Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez Jr.
Authorities learned the vehicle was rented through verified financial records by the FBI, Perez said. The car was discovered near the storage facility where the suspect was found dead.
The Brown University shooter acted alone in the attack which left two students dead and nine injured, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr. said tonight at a news conference.
The “unthinkable” happened to the Brown University community in Providence and recovering from the devastating mass shooting will take “a great deal of time,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee.
“We’re going to be forever changed but our commitment on the state level is to continue to support Providence, Brown and the people in the state of Rhode Island in recovery,” said McKee at the news conference.
The FBI executed authorized search warrants at the Salem, New Hampshire, facility today, where they found the suspect, FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said.
The investigation into the Brown University shooting from the weekend relied on “threads” of information to get officials answers on the shooter’s wherabouts, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
A person who came to local police officers with information, Neronha said, “blew this case right open.”
“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 that matched the satchel that we see here in Providence,” Neronha said.
The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting was found dead with a satchel, two firearms and evidence matching the scene of the crime, said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
The deceased suspect was identified as Claudio Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown University student and Portuguese national, Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez, Jr. said during a news conference on Thursday.
This post has been updated to clarify that the suspect was a former student of Brown University.
Officials are now holding a news conference on the Brown University shooting investigation.
The news conference comes as law enforcement officials told CNN that the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting has been found dead Thursday night.
The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting was found dead Thursday night after taking his own life, said Providence Chief of Police Oscar L. Perez, Jr.
Four law enforcement officials previously confirmed to CNN the suspect was found dead.
Law enforcement was seen swarming an area in Salem, New Hampshire where they found an abandoned car with a license plate believed to be connected to the suspect.
Kathy Renzi, who lives near Salem, New Hampshire, said she never expected the search for the Brown University suspect to come to her area.
“I hope it ends” and they find the suspect, Renzi said. “These poor families, what are they going to do? It’s Christmas time, they’ll never forget this.”
Police cars and unmarked vehicles can be seen lining the streets, blocking access to some areas as residents looked on.
Some people on the scene are wearing FBI Evidence Response Team jackets, while others were wearing police uniforms and plainclothes outfits.
Authorities believe the suspect in the Brown University shooting may be inside a specific storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told CNN.
Law enforcement officials are swarming the area where they found an abandoned car with a license plate believed to be connected to the suspect as the manhunt continues in day six.
When authorities involved in the manhunt for the Brown University shooting suspect saw a call-out from police investigating the killing of an MIT professor, they realized a vehicle of interest in that case was just like one they were looking for.
It was the same kind of car used by suspects in both cases, but the license plates were different, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the case. A witness had provided a license plate to authorities probing the Brown University shooting who then investigated the car and its past drivers, which allowed them to identify the same vehicle of interest in the MIT professor killing.
Investigators were able to locate the car in Salem, New Hampshire, and law enforcement is currently swarming the area after a license plate reader flagged one of the plates that matched the car, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
The suspect has employed a series of countermeasures to avoid being tracked beyond swapping license plates in different cities, as he has seemingly planned ahead to avoid surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology by making himself unidentifiable, one official said.
The tactics draw parallels to the five-day manhunt for Luigi Mangione — who wore a medical mask and beanie while he was on the run — in the fatal shooting of a healthcare CEO in midtown Manhattan.
Police in Methuen, Massachusetts, are asking residents to report any suspicious activity involving a person on foot amid an ongoing manhunt for the suspect in the Brown University shooting.
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are searching for a suspect at the border of Salem, New Hampshire, and Methuen in connection with a “recent death,” authorities said in a social media post.
There is no risk to the public or residents in the area, police said.
