Did the Suspect in the Killings at Elite US Institutions Take His Own Life?
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
- Claudio Valente was a former student implicated in violent acts at two prestigious universities.
- Two students died during the shooting at Brown University.
- The motive behind the attacks is still under investigation.
- Law enforcement utilized DNA evidence and witness accounts to trace Valente.
- These incidents have raised concerns regarding safety on university campuses.
New York, Dec 19 (NationPress) Officials have reported that the individual responsible for instilling fear at two prominent US institutions, following a mass shooting at the Ivy League Brown University and the murder of a nuclear science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has taken his own life.
The suspect was identified as Claudio Valente, a 48-year-old former student from Portugal, who was discovered deceased in a storage facility while law enforcement officials were closing in on him, confirmed Oscar Perez, the police chief of Providence, Rhode Island, during a Thursday night briefing.
This storage facility was located in nearby New Hampshire, extending the investigation across three states.
On Saturday, two students lost their lives at Brown University in Providence, and nine others were injured while preparing for final exams at the School of Engineering as the shooter entered, firing indiscriminately.
On Monday night, Nuno Loureiro, the director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center and also a native of Portugal, was murdered at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha stated that the motive behind these attacks remains a “mystery.”
Potential insights suggest that Valente, a former master’s and PhD student in Physics who dropped out from Brown in 2001, had previously studied alongside Loureiro at a university in Portugal, according to officials.
As panic spread among elite university campuses nationwide, investigations faced a setback when Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of a man initially identified as a suspect, only for further inquiries to eliminate him from consideration.
The breakthrough came when a person who had interacted with Valente reached out to officials after images of both individuals were circulated from surveillance footage.
This witness provided critical details, including the license plate of Valente's rental vehicle, which ultimately led law enforcement to his location.
Neronha confirmed that DNA evidence linked Valente to the shooting at Brown University.
During a separate press conference in Boston, Massachusetts federal prosecutor Leah Foley indicated that they established connections between Valente and both cases through his vehicle.