The gunman who opened fire at Brown University and killed two students has been found dead after law enforcement officials clad in tactical gear descended on a storage facility in New Hampshire.
Authorities had found a vehicle used by the suspect parked outside the building in Salem – more than 80 miles from the Ivy League school – and secured a search warrant for a unit believed to have been rented by the suspect.
Police then found the suspect – Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national – dead inside the unit, authorities announced at a news conference Thursday night.
‘Tonight our Providence neighbors can breathe a little easier,’ Mayor Brett Smiley said as police announced that the gunman was dead.
Neves Valente, who studied at Brown, had two firearms on him at the time of his death, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha revealed.
‘He was found dead with a satchel, with two firearms and evidence in the car that matches exactly what we see here in Providence,’ Neronha said.
The lead came when a license plate reader flagged one of the license plates that matched the car the suspect was driving, law enforcement officials told CNN.
The vehicle was the same make and model as a car identified in connection with the shooting death of MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro, CBS News reports.
Investigators said earlier in the day that they were exploring whether the two school shootings are linked.
Authorities identified the suspected Brown gunman as Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, at a news conference on Thursday
Armed police officers gathered outside of a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire on Thursday, where a vehicle that was rented to the man suspected of opening fire at Brown University was found
There was a heavy police presence outside of the storage facility
Authorities have reportedly identified the shadowy figure they suspect is responsible for the shooting at Brown, whose face they have been attempting to find with the help of grainy surveillance footage
Authorities then said they had identified the shadowy figure caught on surveillance footage near the scene of Saturday’s shooting, whose face they have been attempting to find with the help of grainy surveillance footage.
Police said Thursday night they were able to track him down after a witness came forward.
‘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 big break in the case finally came on the sixth day of the manhunt for the suspect, after authorities investigating the Brown shooting saw a call-out from Massachusetts police probing Loureiro’s murder – and realized a vehicle of interest in that case was just like the one they were looking for.
It was the same make and model, but the license plates were different, law enforcement officials told CNN.
A witness then provided a license plate to authorities probing the Brown shooting, who then investigated the vehicle and its past drivers – which police say ultimately led them to confirm the two vehicles were the same.
Authorities now say the unidentified suspect employed a series of countermeasures to avoid being tracked beyond swapping the license plates, as he apparently planned to avoid surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology by making himself unidentifiable.
It remains unclear why Neves Valente opened fire at the Ivy League school, where he had been enrolled from 2000 to 2001, when he was taking physics classes.
He then took a leave of absence before he formally withdrew from the school.
The shooting on Saturday took the lives of Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, of Alabama, 19, who were in a study session at the Ivy League’s School of Engineering Barus and Holley Building when the gunman burst in shortly after 4pm and opened fire.
He fired 40 rounds, killing the two students and wounding 12 more.
The Brown University shooting which killed two students and the assassination of an MIT professor two days later may be connected, police have said. (Pictured: Victim Ella Cook)
Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (pictured left), the second Brown University victim killed on Saturday, has been remembered by his roommate as an aspiring neurosurgeon and ‘ball of joy’
Two days later at around 8.30pm on Monday, an unknown gunman also fatally shot married father-of-three Loureiro inside his Boston home, nearly 50 miles away.
FBI agent Ted Docks said Tuesday ‘there seems to be no connection’ between the two shootings, but investigators told WPRI Thursday that there may be a link.
The outlet did not give further information, but said it marks ‘a new break in the case’ which has baffled investigators for days.
Loureiro’s neighbor and friend, Louise Cohen, said she discovered his body after hearing shots disturb the peace of their beautiful area on Gibbs Street.
Cohen said she was lighting a menorah candle when she heard gunshots fired. She rushed to the hallway of their building and found Loureiro lying on his back.
The professor’s heartbroken wife was also in the entry along with another neighbor, and they scrambled to dial 911. Loureiro was taken to hospital but died the next day.
Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory.
MIT paid tribute to him as, ‘a lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist’ who became the director of the college’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, an institution with more than 250 full-time researchers.
Married father-of-three Nuno F.G. Loureiro (pictured), 47, was gunned down at his home in a leafy Boston suburb at 8.30pm by an unknown shooter who is still on the loose
Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory, as shown in the photograph above
Loureiro specialized in nuclear science, engineering and physics. He leaves behind ‘many devoted students, friends, and colleagues’, according to his MIT obituary.
His academic career started at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, where he gained a physics degree.
Loureiro obtained a doctorate in physics from Imperial College London in 2005, before starting post-doctoral work at Princeton later that year.
He also worked at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy between 2007 and 2009.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth acknowledged that the beloved professor died in the wake of the Brown University shooting just two days before.
‘This shocking loss for our community comes in a period of disturbing violence in many other places,’ she said in a statement.
‘It’s entirely natural to feel the need for comfort and support.
‘If you or anyone you know would like counsel or just a listening ear, I encourage you to make use of our many campus resources.
‘In time, the many communities Nuno belonged to will create opportunities to mourn his loss and celebrate his life.’
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail no arrests have been made.
‘This is an active and ongoing homicide investigation,’ they said in a statement. ‘No further information is being released at this time.’
This is a breaking news story with updates to follow.
