The suspect linked to last week’s deadly shooting at Brown University in the United States has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities have confirmed.
US law enforcement officials said the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was discovered on Thursday night at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.
Federal investigators said Valente took his own life after weeks of intense manhunt following the shooting on the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island.
The December 13 attack left two students dead and nine others injured, triggering fear across the campus and surrounding communities.
Confirming the development at a news conference in Providence, the city’s Police Chief, Colonel Oscar Perez, said the suspect was found dead outside Rhode Island.
“The suspect in the Brown University shooting was found deceased in New Hampshire, and authorities believe he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Perez said.
At a separate briefing in Boston, the US Attorney for Massachusetts, Leah Foley, said Valente was also the prime suspect in the killing of an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts.
“He was the person responsible not only for the Brown shootings, but for the Brookline shooting,” Foley said.
The victim of the Brookline attack was identified as 47-year-old Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a nuclear science and engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who died in hospital after being shot at his residence.
According to Foley, investigations suggest Valente and Loureiro may have known each other more than 20 years ago.
“Previously, Valente attended the same academic program as the MIT professor in Portugal between 1995 and 2000,” she said.
Foley also noted that early findings indicate Loureiro was the intended target.
“The information that I know is that there was no doubt that Loureiro was the intended target,” she stated, adding that investigations were still ongoing.
The FBI said a search warrant was executed at the Salem storage facility, where Valente’s body was found alongside a rental car linked to him.
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, Ted Docks, said investigators recovered items connecting Valente directly to the Brown University shooting.
“He was found dead with a satchel containing two firearms, and evidence in the car matches exactly what we saw at the Providence crime scene,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Brown University President, Christina Paxson, disclosed that Valente had previously attended the institution.
“He was a student at Brown University between 2000 and 2001, where he took graduate-level physics classes,” Paxson said.
Despite the new links uncovered, authorities said the motive behind the attacks remains unclear.
“We are still investigating the motive in this case,” Foley said.
