Suspect in Brown University shooting found dead

The suspect in the fatal shooting at Brown University in the US has been found dead.

Two students, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook, were killed and nine were injured during the shooting inside a classroom building at the Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday night in Providence, police said the suspect had been found dead.

He is a 48-year-old Portuguese man called Claudio Manuel Neves Valente whose last known address was in Miami, Florida, police chief Oscar Perez said.

Neves Valente used to be a PhD student in physics at Brown University, the institution's president said.

He received a green card under the diversity lottery immigrant visa programme (DV1) in 2017, which Mr Trump halted with immediate effect on Friday.

Neves Valente was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, seemingly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"He may have been dead for a bit of time," a senior official said.

Reddit post 'blew case wide open'

Neves Valente was found after officers received a tip referencing a witness account posted on the social media platform Reddit.

In the post, a witness said he saw the suspect opening a grey Nissan sedan with Florida plates parked behind the Rhode Island Historical Society, just down the road from the Brown University building, called Barus and Holley, where the shooting happened.

"I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental," the poster wrote.

Police subsequently found the grey Nissan in CCTV footage.

Officers said the information provided by the Reddit poster "was consistent with and corroborated" the earlier CCTV footage of the suspect - wearing a face covering - encountering another man less than two hours before the shooting, so they released still images of the witness to identify him.

"We had that picture of that second individual, and within an hour, no more than two, that person came forward to two Providence police officers. He blew this case right open," Rhode Island's attorney general Peter Neronha said.

'A game of cat and mouse'

The witness, given the pseudonym John in the affidavit, said he first saw the suspect in a bathroom inside the Barus and Holley building at around 1.45pm. John said he made eye contact with the suspect.

John said the suspect left the building, after which "a game of cat and mouse" began between them as John followed the suspect around the area, including to the parking spot of the grey Nissan.

John approached the car and saw "two fanny style bags on the rear floorboard on the passenger side".

He continued to follow the suspect, who eventually started to run away from John. When John caught up with the man, he asked him why he was "circling the block". The suspect did not reply, instead accusing John of "harassing" him.

John said he saw the suspect approach the grey Nissan one more time before walking away.

The car seen on footage located due to John's Reddit post led detectives to a car rental company in Boston, Massachusetts, where officers secured video footage showing the suspect's face and a rental document identifying the suspect as Neves Valente. John later identified the vehicle in CCTV images.

Police also matched the clothes Neves Valente was seen wearing at the car rental place on 1 December to those worn by the suspect on the day of the shooting on 13 December.

Neves Valente was seen wearing a two-tone lighter jacket with the same colour combination and design as the subject, the same or similar black shoes with dark soles, black trousers, a blue shirt poking out from below his jacket, and glasses.

Shooter linked to separate murder

Police said earlier that they were also investigating a possible link between the Brown University shooting suspect and the murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, two days later in a town 50 miles north of Boston.

Mr Loureiro was found dead with gunshot wounds on Monday evening.

Officials confirmed the link in the latest news conference. "On 15 December, he murdered Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro's home in Brookline, Massachusetts," Leah B. Foley, US attorney for the district of Massachusetts, said.

Neves Valente attended the same academic programme as Mr Loureiro at a university in Lisbon, Portugal, between 1995 and 2000, according to Ms Foley.

How police found suspect's body

After leaving Rhode Island for Massachusetts, Neves Valente stuck a Maine number plate over the rental car's plate to help conceal his identity.

CCTV footage showed Neves Valente entering a flat building near Mr Loureiro's.

About one hour later, he was seen entering the storage facility in New Hampshire where he was found dead, Ms Foley said.

When Neves Valente's body was discovered, police also found "a satchel, with two firearms and evidence in the car that matches exactly what we see at the scene here in Providence", Mr Neronha said.

"[John] 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," Mr Neronha added.

But there are still "a lot of unknowns" regarding the motive, Mr Neronha said, adding: "We don't know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom."

Neves Valente was a PhD student in physics at Brown from 2000 until the spring of 2001, when he took a leave of absence before formally withdrawing effective July 2003, according to Brown University president Christina Paxson.

She said that as a physics student, Neves Valente would have spent "a great deal of time" in the Barus and Holley building, where the shooting took place, for classes.

Neves Valente entered the US after being issued a diversity lottery immigrant visa (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.

On his visa, he listed Brown University as the name of his institution and the Barus and Holley building, where the physics department is located, as the address of the institution.

Neves Valente also listed "None-Dropout" as his degree or diploma, and dates of attendance from 1 September 2001 to 1 May 2001.

After Neves Valente's identity and visa status were revealed, the Trump administration immediately stopped the DV1 programme, according to secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem.

"In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people," Ms Noem wrote on X.

At President Trump's direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program."