BREAKING: Brown U. shooter, linked MIT professor murder, found dead in storage facility by suicide

A split image shows Claudio Neves-Valente, wearing the same jacket as a man identified earlier as a person of interest in the case. (Providence Police Department)

Authorities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts announced late Thursday that the manhunt for the gunman responsible for last Saturday's deadly shooting at Brown University, and the subsequent murder of an MIT nuclear physics professor, has come to a grim end. 

The suspect, identified as 48-year-old Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, was found dead in a Salem, New Hampshire storage unit from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Providence police named Neves-Valente as the shooter who killed two students and wounded nine others during a finals-week economics review session in the Barus and Holley Building on Brown's campus.

Neves-Valente had a brief and troubled history at Brown, enrolling as a physics Ph.D. student in fall 2000 before taking a leave of absence and withdrawing in 2003, according to university president Christina Paxson.

"I think it's safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities as a Ph.D. student in physics," Paxson said. "He has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence."

The building, which houses physics and engineering departments, was the site of the attack around 4 p.m. on December 13. 

Investigators later connected Neves-Valente to the fatal shooting of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at his Brookline home on Monday, about 50 miles from Providence. Both men had attended Portugal's Instituto Superior Técnico around the same time, with Neves-Valente reportedly terminated from a monitor position there in 2000.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah B. Foley confirmed the link in a separate briefing: "This evening at approximately 9 p.m., federal agents breached a storage locker in Salem, New Hampshire, in search of Claudio Neves-Valente, a Portuguese national we believed shot and killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts," she told reporters in a separate news briefing. "Federal agents found Neves-Valente dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound."

A split image showing multiple still frames from the surveillance video taken near Brown University of a person of interest before and after a school shooting Saturday. (FBI Boston) Early leads included surveillance footage of a stocky, masked figure with a distinctive gait, as noted by body language expert Susan Constantine. Police also briefly questioned and cleared another individual.

The victims killed at Brown were Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia. Six survivors remained hospitalized in stable condition as of Thursday.The case broke open thanks to tips on a rental car seen near campus, leading to images of Neves-Valente and eventually the New Hampshire storage unit.

With the suspect dead, questions about motive linger, and the investigation continues. The communities around both elite institutions, already on edge after the attacks, can at least breathe a sigh of relief that the immediate threat has ended.

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Brown University Shooting: Person of Interest Nabbed, But the Ivy League Admin Fumble is Priceless

Look, folks, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Providence officials finally had some good news after that horrific shooting at Brown University the day before.

"Effective immediately, we are lifting the shelter in place for Brown and the related area."Mayor Brett Smiley, trying to sound reassuring at an early presser, announced they'd detained a "person of interest" in the attack that turned an economics exam review session into a nightmare.

"We are able to report that we have detained a person of interest involved in yesterday’s shooting," Smiley said. "Colonel Perez will speak in a minute about that update. Second, I want to let the Providence community know that effective immediately, we are lifting the shelter in place for Brown and the related area."

"The people of Providence should breathe a little easier this morning," he added, because nothing says "relax" like a masked gunman bursting into a classroom and opening fire. Police Chief Colonel Oscar Perez chimed in, confirming the detainee is in their 30s (or 20s—details are a bit fuzzy there), and they're not hunting anyone else right now. Sparse on specifics, as usual.

The whole mess went down during a review for an econ class, with the shooter storming in and unloading.

But the real head-scratcher was Brown President Christina Paxson catching flak on Saturday for being completely in the dark, six full hours after the shots rang out, about what exactly was happening in that classroom.

Paxson admitted she'd been in D.C. when it happened and hopped a flight back ASAP. "I'm just catching up," she said.

Then came the grilling: "President, with all due respect, SIX HOURS after the shooting, you don't know what was going on in that classroom? How does that happen? Were they taking an exam? Were they meeting for a club?"

"I don’t know,” Paxson replied, looking bewitched, bothered and bewildered. "Six hours later. You're the president. You don't know?" the reporter pressed, incredulous. "I do not know," Paxson repeated.

"That’s kind of concerning," the reporter noted.

No kidding. In the age of instant everything, the head of an elite Ivy can't get a basic update on a mass shooting on her own campus for half a day? That's the kind of leadership that makes you wonder if they're too busy with DEI seminars to handle actual crises.

If you like Brain Flushings and want to Buy Me a Coffee, I would appreciate it, as it supports my work. Obviously, there is no pressure but I certainly wouldn't stop you. Imagine, you could be the first on your block to do that and your friends will thank you . . . for some reason.

In the aftermath, Brown scrapped all final exams, poof, gone. Students were told to pack up, head home, and prioritize "safety and well-being." "For the moment, we encourage everyone to focus on their own safety and well-being," the provost said.

Hey, at least the kids get a pass on finals. Silver lining in a tragedy, I suppose. But seriously, prayers for the victims and their families, this shouldn't happen anywhere, let alone on a college campus.

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