Authorities have revealed that the suspect in the brown university The shooting, which left three people dead, including the shooting death of an MIT professor, was found dead Thursday at a New Hampshire storage facility.
ending a multi-state manhunt that stretched across New England.
Authorities identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown graduate student, ending a multi-state manhunt that stretched across New England.
The suspect’s body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, days after the shooting on Brown’s campus in Providence and the killing of a MIT professor in Massachusetts.
Authorities said there is no evidence he was working with anyone else.
“Tonight our neighbors in Providence will finally be able to breathe a little easier,” Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters at a news conference Thursday night.
According to investigators, Valente took his own life while his body was found in a unit next to the one he had rented, and he was carrying a briefcase containing two firearms.
Meanwhile, authorities have not yet identified a motive for the shooting.
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During a news conference Thursday, authorities said Valente was responsible for last weekend’s shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and nine others wounded, as well as the murder of an MIT professor two days later.
Brown’s victims were identified as Ella Cook, 19, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, 18, who were shot during a review session for an economics course in a first-floor auditorium.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said Valente enrolled as a doctoral student in the school’s physics program in 2000, attended for less than a year, then took a leave of absence and retired.
He said it was believed that, as a physics student, he spent considerable time in the Barus & Holley engineering building, which was the target of Saturday’s shooting. Officials said he had no current affiliation with the university.
Authorities also mentioned that Valente entered the United States in 2000 with a student visa and obtained legal permanent residence in April 2017.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the suspect was granted a visa through the diversity lottery program in 2017 and said DHS would suspend the program immediately “to ensure no more Americans are harmed,” according to a statement posted to X on Friday morning.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed into our country in 2017,” Noem said.
According to ABC News, Massachusetts officials confirmed that Valente is also the alleged gunman in the death of MIT Professor Nuno FG Loureirowho was shot Monday night in the lobby of his Brookline building.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said both men were natives of Portugal and likely studied in the same academic program there in the 1990s.
It was only a day or two ago that the “link” between the two baffling crimes began to be established, Foley told reporters as authorities worked to piece together the timeline.
Investigators said Valente’s last known address was in Miami, but he rented a hotel room in Boston in late November. On December 1, he rented a gray Nissan Sentra that was then seen near Brown’s campus for the next 12 days.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said surveillance video and a detailed tip helped lead investigators to the suspect. The reporting party flagged a gray Nissan with Florida plates and reported unusual behavior.
“I’m very serious. Police need to investigate a gray Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental vehicle,” the informant told police, according to a complaint released by Rhode Island authorities. “That was the car he was driving.”
Data from the license plate reader led police to a rental agency in Massachusetts, where they obtained the rental agreement in Valente’s name and a video that matched footage of Brown’s campus on the day of the shooting.
Authorities said the trail led them to the storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where they believe Valente fled after the MIT professor was killed.
FBI SWAT teams executed a search warrant shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday, when Valente’s body was found.
Authorities said the investigation into the shooting continues, although they believe the suspect acted alone.
(ABC News)