BOSTON — The gunman in the Brown University shooting, who was found dead Thursday night of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was also the individual who killed an MIT professor at his home in Brookline, according to the state’s top federal law enforcement official.
Speaking at a press briefing late Thursday, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, killed two and injured nine students at Brown University in Providence last Saturday, then killed MIT professor Nuno Loureiro in Brookline two days later.
He was found dead Thursday in a rented storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.
Foley said authorities were able to link Neves-Valente to both shootings through video of his rental car and the hotels he stayed in. She said he used a cellphone that disguised his location and had credit cards that were not in his name.
“He was sophisticated in hiding his tracks,” she told reporters.
Foley provided a brief overview of Neves-Valente movements leading to the shootings, saying he rented a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from a car rental agency in Boston, then drove to Brown University, where the car was observed in video footage a day before the Providence shooting.
He returned to Massachusetts shortly after, Foley said, where he “murdered” the MIT professor in his home.
Sometime after that, Foley said, he switched the plates on his rental car to unregistered Maine tags. Then he drove to the storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where he had rented a unit and where he was found dead Thursday.
“Investigators identified the vehicle that he had rented in Boston and drove to Rhode Island,” Foley said. “There were financial investigations that were going on in the background that linked him, not only to that car, but to hotels that he had rented.”
Foley said U.S. attorneys in several states had been working to obtain probable cause to charge Neves-Valente in both murders. Her office had obtained a sealed criminal complaint against him prior to the discovery of his body.
A motive in the killings remains unclear, and while Foley said the gunman knew the slain MIT professor, she declined to provide more information about their relationship. She said they both attended the same academic program in Portugal, but didn’t offer additional details.
“My understanding is that they did know each other,” Foley told reporters. “I’m sure once we have a full understanding of what he has been doing and where he has been, will provide that.”
The late night press briefing capped an intense six-day manhunt spanning several New England states, which put communities from Rhode Island to southern New Hampshire on edge.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.