Suspect in Brown University shooting found dead

The suspect in last week’s mass shooting at Brown University was found dead at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, after a six-day multistate manhunt, police said.

Police identified the suspect as Claudio Nieves Valiente, 48, a Portuguese national who attended university in Providence, Rhode Island, about 25 years ago.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said video evidence and tips from the public led investigators to a car rental site where they found the suspect’s name and matched it to their person of interest.

Officials said they also believe Valente killed an MIT professor two days after shooting Brown on Dec. 13.

Authorities did not provide a motive for either attack.

Valenti attended the Ivy League school from the fall of 2000 to the following spring and was studying for a doctorate in physics, Brown University President Christina Paxson said.

She said he has “no current active affiliation” with Brown.

Officials said they believe Valente shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F. Gomez Loureiro, 47, on Monday at his home in Brooklyn, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Providence.

Police said the victim and the suspect studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s.

The two cases were linked when the suspect’s car was identified via surveillance footage and a witness at Brown University.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neroha said Valente was found dead with a bag and two firearms. Evidence found in a nearby car matches the scene of the accident in Providence.

The same car was seen near where the professor was shot.

Preliminary findings indicate that Valente died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and police were unable to comment on how long he may have spent inside the storage unit.

“Although the suspect was found dead tonight, our work is not complete. There are many questions that need to be answered,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Dukes said, adding that the agency has deployed about 500 agents to assist local authorities in the investigation.

Leah B. Foley, the US attorney representing Massachusetts, said Valente was using a phone that “obscured” the tracking.

“He was sophisticated at covering his tracks.”

Meanwhile, the US suspended its green card lottery program in the wake of the shooting, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem saying Valente “should not have been allowed into our country.”

Noem said the Portuguese national entered the United States through the Diversity Visa (DV1) program in 2017 and obtained a green card.

The program makes up to 50,000 visas available each year through a random selection process among entries from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

It temporarily suspended the visa program under President Donald Trump’s directives to “ensure that no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”

For days, members of the public have expressed frustration with the investigation into the shooting at Brown University last Saturday, after it appeared to make little progress nearly a week after the attack.

A gunman stormed the Barus & Holley Engineering Building at Brown University and opened fire during final exams.

Two students were killed and nine others were injured. Six remain in hospital.

Authorities identified the two dead as Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Alabama, and Muhammed Aziz Umurzukov, 18, an Uzbek-American first-year student.

Police asked Rhode Island residents for patience, and on Wednesday released new footage of a person of interest, in which a man was seen walking around campus with a black mask over his mouth.

The FBI has also offered a reward of $50,000 (£37,350) for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the attack.