The man suspected of killing two students and injuring nine others in a mass shooting at Brown University days later shot and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, who was found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire on Thursday, officials said.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez told reporters Thursday that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, died by suicide.
Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, said Valente, who is also suspected of killing an MIT professor days after the Rhode Island campus shooting, was found in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, about 130 miles north of Providence, Rhode Island, and authorities had obtained a search warrant.
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The suspect, a Portuguese national whose last known address was in Miami, attended Brown University as a doctoral student in the early 2000s. University President Christina Paxson told reporters that he was a physics student before dropping out in 2003.
A judge signed an arrest warrant Thursday on charges of interstate murder, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Neronha said it was unclear why the shots were fired.
“Why Brown? I think that’s a mystery,” he said, adding, “I don’t think we have any idea why now, why Brown, why these students, why this classroom. We just don’t know.”
Neljona said someone who saw the suspect’s photo provided information to authorities and “confessed to the incident.”
That information led police to the rental car, where they found the suspect’s name and a photo of the rental car. Neljona said the clothing worn in those photos matched that worn by the Brown shooter.
At a separate news conference Thursday night, Massachusetts District Attorney Leah B. Foley told reporters that Valente also shot and killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in his home on Dec. 15.
Dox, the FBI agent, said Valente appeared to have attended the same Portuguese university as Loureiro.
Authorities previously said the suspect who shot Brown on Saturday used a 9mm handgun in a classroom on the first floor of the school’s Barth and Hawley building.
The final exam had begun the day before, and as the exam continued, gunshots rang out on the Providence campus.
The shooting sparked a multi-day search for the shooter. Perez said state police, the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals and even the IRS are assisting in the investigation.
On Monday, police released more video and images of the person being sought that were recorded about two hours before Saturday’s shooting, and the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information.
Officials said a person of interest was in custody Sunday, the day after the shooting, but was released from custody after investigators determined the evidence did not support his detention.
At 4:05 p.m. Saturday, students were told to lock their doors and turn off their phones as a 911 call came in reporting a shooting on the Ivy League campus, prompting an hour-long shelter-in-place warning for the campus and surrounding areas.
Those killed in the shooting were Ella Cook, 19, of Birmingham, Alabama, and vice president of Brown University’s Republican chapter, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, from Uzbekistan, who his family said had a “bright future,” with dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon.
Most of the injured were in serious condition.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he has received offers of support and assistance from mayors of other cities.
“But one of the depressing facts is that I received dozens of text messages from other mayors saying, ‘I’ve been through this too, we’re here for you, if you need advice, please call me,'” Smiley said Monday. “Unfortunately, things like this happen all too often.”
