The man suspected of killing two students and wounding nine others in a shooting at Brown University before fatally shooting a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor days later was found dead Thursday in a New Hampshire storage unit, officials said.
The suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, died by suicide, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez told reporters Thursday.
Valente, who is also accused of killing an MIT professor days after the Rhode Island campus shooting, was found in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, roughly 80 miles north of Providence, Rhode Island, that authorities had obtained warrants to search, said Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office.
The suspect, a Portuguese national whose last known address was in Miami, attended Brown in the early 2000s as a Ph.D. student studying physics before he withdrew in 2003, university President Christina Paxson told reporters.
A judge signed an arrest warrant Thursday accusing him of interstate murder, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Neronha said it was unclear why he opened fire.
“Why Brown? I think that is a mystery,” he said, adding: “I don’t think we have any idea why now, or why Brown, why these students, why this classroom. That is really unknown to us.”
Nerhona said a person who saw a photo of the suspect reached out to authorities with information and “blew this case right open.”
That information led police to a rental car, the suspect’s name and photos of him renting the car, he said. The clothing he was seen wearing in those photos matched the clothing worn by the shooter at Brown, Nerhona said.
Leah B. Foley, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told reporters at a separate news conference Thursday night that Valente also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home on Dec. 15.
Docks, the FBI agent, said Valente appears to have attended the same university in Portugal as Loureiro.
Officials previously said the suspect who opened fire at Brown on Saturday used a 9 mm handgun in a first-floor classroom of the school’s Barus & Holley building.
Final exams had started the day before and were continuing when gunfire rang out at the Providence campus.
The shooting prompted a dayslong manhunt for the gunman. State police, the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. marshals — even the IRS — were assisting in the investigation, Perez said.
On Monday, police released more videos and images of a person they were seeking, which were recorded around two hours before Saturday’s shooting, and the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information.
A person of interest had been detained Sunday, a day after the shooting, but that person was released from custody after investigators determined the evidence did not support his detention, officials said.
A 911 call about an active shooter on the Ivy League campus came in at 4:05 p.m. Saturday, and students were told to lock doors and silence phones as an hourslong shelter-in-place warning took effect on campus and in the surrounding community.
Killed in the shooting were Ella Cook, 19, a Birmingham, Alabama, native and vice president of the Brown College Republicans chapter, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, who was from Uzbekistan and who family members said had a “bright future” ahead of him and dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon.
Most of the wounded were left in critical condition.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he has gotten support and offers of help from mayors of other cities.
“But one of the just depressing facts is, I’ve received dozens of texts from other mayors saying, ‘I’ve been through this, we’re here for you, call us if you need help for advice,” Smiley said Monday. “Sadly, this happens far too frequently.”
