Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire; possible ties to MIT killing probed

The suspect in the Brown University shooting has been identified as a 48-year-old former Brown student. The suspect was a Portuguese national whose last known residence was in Miami, Florida, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez said during a news conference Thursday night.

The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting has been found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, sources told CBS News.

The police department for the northern Massachusetts border city of Methuen said its officers had been deployed to Salem, New Hampshire, for “an active investigation into a recent death.”

Methuen is located about 5 miles south of Salem, where sources confirmed to CBS News Boston that authorities were searching a storage facility in connection with the Brown University shooting and the shooting death of an MIT professor.

The statement from Methuen police did not disclose if the investigation was related to the search for the suspect in the Brown University shooting.   

“Federal authorities, with the assistance of state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Methuen Police Department, are currently mobilizing resources at the border by Salem, NH/Methuen,” at Route 28, the statement reads.

“At this time, there is no information indicating an imminent risk to the public or residents of Methuen,” police added. 

Police are searching an area in Salem, New Hampshire, in connection with the Brown University mass shooting and the killing of the MIT professor, sources told CBS News Boston. 

Aerial video from the station showed authorities surrounding a storage unit facility. The U.S. Marshals Service, Providence police and Salem police were all on scene, CBS News Boston reported.

A vehicle possibly linked to the suspect was found abandoned in that area, according to CBS News Boston chief investigative reporter Cheryl Fiandaca. 

Salem is located about 40 minutes northwest of Boston, just over the border from Masssachusetts. Police were searching an area off Interstate 93. 

The ongoing, active manhunt for the Brown University shooting suspect is now taking place in multiple states, law enforcement sources tell CBS News.

Investigators are searching for a suspect in the Brown University shooting and a car that the person is believed to have rented, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Authorities believe the rented vehicle is the same make and model of a car that was also detected in the vicinity of the apartment of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was shot at his residence on Monday and died in a hospital the following day, the sources said.

Surveillance video released by investigators traced the movements of the person of interest before and after the shooting Saturday afternoon. He was first seen on camera on a street near the Brown University campus at about 2 p.m.

A few minutes later, was seen pacing a couple of block away and then jogging down two nearby streets. 

At about 4 p.m., the shooting took place in the Barus & Holley building on campus. Afterwards, investigators believe he cut through a parking lot and was last spotted at 4:06 p.m. 

Police have shared multiple videos and images of the person, who is dressed in black and wearing a hat and face covering. But even a version “enhanced” by authorities did not provide a clear view of the person’s face. The FBI described the person as being about 5-foot-8 with a stocky build. 

Nuno Loureiro, a nuclear science and engineering professor from Portugal, taught plasma physics at MIT and led its Plasma Science and Fusion Center. 

The 47-year-old was found shot Monday night at his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at a hospital the following day. 

“Nuno was not only a brilliant scientist, he was a brilliant person,” colleague Dennis Whyte said in an obituary published Tuesday by MIT. “He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner. His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world.”

Authorities are investigating his death as a homicide. 

The two students killed in the shooting at Brown University on Saturday, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, are being remembered as “brilliant and beloved — as members of our campus community, but even more by their friends and families,” Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, wrote in a letter to the university community. 

Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, was vice president of Brown’s College Republicans. 

“Ella was a devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama,” Alabama Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth said in a post on X. “A bright future was ended much too soon.”

Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman, was studying biochemistry and neuroscience. His sister, Samira Umurzokova, said he was helping a friend study for an economics final when he was shot.

“It’s just heartbreaking for the community, we’re all really in shock right now,” student Jack Cox told CBS News Boston.

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