Brown University Shooter Suspect Found Dead After SixDay Manhunt

Brown University Shooting Suspect Found Dead After Six-Day Manhunt

 

 

The suspect in last week’s mass shooting at Brown University has been found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, bringing an end to a six-day, multi-state manhunt, police said.

 

Authorities identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and former Brown student who briefly studied for a PhD in physics at the Ivy League school more than two decades ago. Officials said Valente had no current affiliation with the university.

 

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said investigators tracked Valente through surveillance footage and public tips that led them to a car-rental location, where his name was linked to the vehicle seen near the Brown campus. The same car was later spotted near the scene of a second killing in Brookline, Massachusetts.

 

Police believe Valente also shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro, 47, at his home two days after the Brown attack. Both men had studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s.

 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Valente was found with a satchel containing two firearms, and evidence recovered from a nearby vehicle matched materials from the Brown shooting. Initial findings indicate Valente died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though authorities have not said how long he was inside the storage unit.

 

The FBI deployed roughly 500 agents to assist the investigation. “Even though the suspect was found dead tonight, our work is not done,” said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks.

 

The Brown shooting occurred during final exams when a gunman opened fire inside the Barus & Holley engineering building, killing Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, and injuring nine others. Six victims remain hospitalized.

No motive has yet been established for either attack.

Key Takeaways

• Claudio Neves Valente, former Brown student, found dead in New Hampshire

• Police link him to both the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of an MIT professor

• Authorities believe the suspect died by suicide; motive remains unknown

 

SOURCE BBC