Law enforcement officials say the same gunman who opened fire at Brown University also shot and killed an MIT professor two days later. The suspect in both shootings has been identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.
Authorities said he was found dead in New Hampshire Thursday night following an intensive manhunt.
Two students were killed and nine were wounded in the shooting at Brown, in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday. Then MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was gunned down at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday.
Investigators believe the suspect acted alone, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Here’s what we know so far about the suspect.
Who is the suspect in the Brown University and MIT professor shootings?
The suspect in the shootings was identified by authorities as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts posted a photo of Neves Valente on social media late Thursday night.
U.S. Attorney Massachusetts 
He was a Portuguese national whose last known residence was in Miami, Florida, officials said during a news conference Thursday night.
He studied at Brown in 2000-2001 and then moved to the U.S. in 2017 after receiving a green card through a visa lottery program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post late Thursday.
Where was the suspect found?
Officials said Neves Valente died by suicide at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where he had rented a unit. A satchel and two firearms were found with him.
“We are 100% confident that this is our target, and that this case is closed from a perspective of pursuing people involved,” Neronha said.
But so far the motive remains a mystery.
“I don’t think we have any idea why now, or why — why Brown? Why these students? Why this classroom? That is really unknown to us. It may become clear, I hope that it does, but it hasn’t as of right now,” Neronha said.
How was the suspect identified?
Security footage and hotel, rental car and storage unit records all helped in the case. And police said information from a tipster who encountered the suspect near Brown University was key to making the identification.
Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, provided a timeline at a news conference Thursday night.
She said the suspect stayed in a hotel room in Boston in late November, and then on Dec. 1 he rented a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from a car rental agency in Boston and drove “to the vicinity” of Brown University. Providence is about an hour’s drive from Boston.
Providence Police/Handout via REUTERS 
His car was “observed intermittently” between Dec. 1 and Dec. 12 in the area of Brown University, Foley said. The shooting took place on Saturday, Dec. 13, and suspect then returned to Massachusetts, where MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot at his home in Brookline on Monday, Dec. 15.
A tipster known as “John” in a Providence police affidavit reported that he encountered a man near Brown resembling the person of interest. John began posting on the social media forum Reddit that police should look into “possibly a rental” grey Nissan.
Following up on that tip “blew this case right open,” Neronha said.
“Investigators identified the vehicle that he had rented in Boston and drove to Rhode Island,” Foley said, and they also obtained footage of him from the rental car location. She said a financial investigation also linked him to the car and hotels.
Providence Police/Handout via REUTERS 
Security footage also showed the suspect within a half-mile of Loureiro’s apartment, and there was footage showing him entering “in the location of the professor’s apartment,” Foley said.
About an hour later, he was seen entering the storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
When he was found dead Thursday he was dressed in the same clothes that he was seen wearing right after Loureiro’s murder, Foley said.
“We found records, with the help of the FBI and others, that that was his storage area,” Neronha said.
What was the suspect’s connection to Brown University?
Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown University from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, said. He was admitted to the graduate school to study in a PhD physics program.
Paxson said he took a leave of absence in April 2001, before formally withdrawing on July 31, 2003.
He was only enrolled in physics classes while at the school, which were held in the same building where the shooting took place.
“The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held at the Barus & Holley classrooms and labs,” Paxson said.
What was the suspect’s connection to the MIT professor?
Both the suspect and MIT professor Nuno Loureiro were from Portugal.
In a statement, the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal confirmed that Neves Valente had been a student at its Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion, studying for a degree in Engineering Physics between 1995 and 2000. Loureiro took the course during the same period, the institute said.
“My understanding is that they did know each other,” Foley said.
They were close in age — the suspect was 48 and Loureiro was 47 — and both studied physics. Loureiro went on to become a prominent scholar in the field of fusion energy research and was director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Loureiro was shot multiple times at his home Monday night and died the next day.
