The man suspected in a shooting at Brown University this weekend that left two people dead and nine injured committed suicide Thursday night, authorities said.
The man was found dead in the warehouse Thursday evening. He is also believed to have killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor at his home in the Boston area, the AP reports, citing a law enforcement official.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire issued a press release indicating that Brown's shooter and the MIT professor's killer were the same person. “The shooter has died and there is no longer a threat to the public,” the brief press release said. said.
“Tonight he committed suicide,” said Oscar Perez, the head of Providence. Rhode IslandThe police department reported this at a press conference.
Perez identified the man as Claudio Neves Valente, 48.. Authorities believe he acted alone. Peter Neronha, Rhode Island's attorney general, said the suspect received lawful permanent resident status in September 2017.
Neronha said Neves Valente was found dead with a bag and two firearms, as well as evidence in the car “that matches exactly what we see at the scene here in Providence.”
Neronha told reporters that a person with information about the suspected shooter played a key role in his search. After officials released a photo of the suspect about 24 hours earlier, the man “approached two Providence police officers on the east side and said he had information that he was the man and that he had information that could help in the case.”
“He solved the case,” Neronha said at a news conference. “He blew it up.”
Information about the man led authorities to a vehicle, which helped them find a name, “which led us to photographs of this individual renting a car that matched our shooter's clothing here in Providence, which matched the bag,” Neronha explained.
Neronha said the suspect tried to evade law enforcement by changing his license plates.
“One of the reasons was the guy who changed the plates,” he said. “He knew what he was doing…we have a primary license plate and a Florida plate on the same car.”
Brown University President Christina Paxson said Valente attended Brown University from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001 as a graduate student in physics. He took a leave of absence in April 2001 and officially retired in 2003 and “has no affiliation with the university at this time,” Paxson said.
Physics classes typically require access to specialized equipment, which was located in the building where the shooting occurred, Paxson said.
Ted Dox, FBI special agent in charge of Boston, told reporters that authorities believe the suspect attended the same university in Lisbon as the MIT professor.
Confirmation of the alleged shooter's death came hours after dozens of law enforcement agents converged on a warehouse in Salem, New Hampshire. Just before 8 p.m., journalist Eli Sherman reported: “Several law enforcement officers armed with weapons and in full tactical gear entered the storage facility.”
The manhunt for the shooter resumed Monday morning after the state attorney general announced that the suspect arrested Sunday was releasedan event that Providence Mayor Brett Smiley acknowledged “will likely cause new anxiety in our community.”
Smiley told CNN that while the initial release of the person of interest was a setback, “that did not mean that other parts of the investigation were stopped or suspended in any way.”
FBI Director Kash Patel faced criticism on Monday for taking to social media to celebrate the bureau's work, but the man arrested was released hours later.
The two killed students were identified by family Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, a freshman at Brown. Cook was vice president of the Brown College Republicans of America; Umurzokov dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon.
