(NEW YORK) — New details about how police caught up to Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the 48-year-old former Brown graduate student who perpetrated a mass shooting at Brown University and killed an MIT professor, have emerged after a dayslong manhunt where he made a series of moves designed to evade authorities.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said local police helped tracked down Valente, who was found dead in a New Hampshire storage unit, thanks, in part, to surveillance video and a detailed tip about a vehicle being driven by a person who noted odd behavior by the suspect.
“I’m being dead serious. Police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” the tipster told police, according to a complaint released by Rhode Island authorities. “That was the car he was driving.”
The tip and surveillance video, along with the use of license-plate reader technology led investigators to a car rental agency in Massachusetts. There, police obtained a copy of the rental agreement with the suspect’s name, as well as video of the suspect that matched the videos of the person of interest seen on the Brown University campus on the day of the shooting.
That discovery ultimately led investigators to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where the suspect was found dead.
Financial records and video evidence confirmed that the storage unit belonged to the suspect and that the rental vehicle was connected to both the Rhode Island and Massachusetts cases.
Authorities identified the suspect as Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown University student whose last known address was in Miami, Florida. Officials said Valente died by suicide Thursday evening.
Officials confirmed that Valente was found with a satchel containing two firearms, and evidence recovered from the vehicle matched what was found at the Providence crime scene.
Federal authorities confirmed that shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday, FBI SWAT teams executed court-authorized search warrants at a storage facility in Salem, which is where they found Valente’s body.
Brown officials confirmed that Valente was enrolled at the university from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 as a graduate student in physics, entering Brown’s graduate program in September 2000 before taking a leave of absence in April 2001 and formally withdrawing in 2003.
During his time at Brown, he was enrolled only in physics courses, which were typically held in the Barus & Holley building. University records indicate he has had no active affiliation with Brown for more than two decades.
Police said the suspect acted alone and that there is no indication, at this time, of additional planned attacks.
Investigators have not identified any writings, known criminal history or clear motive. Officials said forensic teams are still processing evidence recovered in New Hampshire, including firearms, and will compare it with ballistic and DNA evidence from the Providence crime scene.
Brown University President Christina Paxson said the university is still reviewing how the suspect gained access to the building. She said the building was unlocked that day because exams were being held, and the university will examine security procedures moving forward.
As per the murdered MIT professor, officials said is it believed that the two individuals attended the same university in Lisbon Portugal.
Investigators said they identified the suspect by name late Wednesday night and weighed whether releasing his identity could cause him to flee or take further action.
Officials said they believed he might return the rental car in Boston or attempt to leave the area, and they wanted the opportunity to arrest him without alerting him that police were closing in.
Officials said it remains unclear exactly when the suspect took his own life but noted that he signed into the storage facility but was never seen leaving.
The site was secured by federal agents, and investigators said an autopsy will help determine the timing of his death.
In an update on the victims, officials said all six people still hospitalized have now been upgraded to stable condition.
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