<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/police" rel="" target="_blank" title="Police"><span>Police</span></a><span> lights flashed for hours as law enforcement officers surrounded a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, finally closing in on a suspect who unleashed deadly attacks on two communities and had managed to evade authorities for six days.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Outside was an abandoned car linked to both the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/police-respond-to-reported-shooting-at-brown-university-in-rhode-island/cd1bab94-0b7a-47c9-9a9b-0da51f4c5a3c" rel="" target="_blank" title="Brown University mass shooting"><span>Brown University mass shooting</span></a><span> on Saturday and the killing of an MIT professor at his home on Monday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Inside a rented storage unit the 48-year-old suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/man-suspected-in-shooting-at-brown-university-has-been-found-dead-in-new-hampshire-ap-source-says/d9bb5360-58da-4e6e-a3ff-333d6bef576c" rel="" target="_blank" title="was dead"><span>was dead</span></a></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Leaving behind a satchel, two 9mm firearms and high-capacity magazines matching ballistics at both crime scenes, along with even more questions about a motive as investigators begin peeling back the layers of his life to fill the gaps in his known past.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/epstein-files-release-prince-andrew-seen-in-photo-lying-across-people-on-couch/fb94ccd2-2390-48af-a844-bf402186ebe3" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Andrew pictured lying on laps in latest Epstein release</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>What motivated two separate attacks?</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Authorities have said the suspect's intent was to cause harm in targeting the Ivy League university and esteemed professor Nuno Loureiro.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/brown-university-mit-shooting-usa-claudio-neves-valente-nuno-loureiro-reddit/114d165e-a1fa-40f0-9e10-fee12a47faa4" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It became clear because his actions showed signs of premeditation, for example, obtaining access to firearms and a bulletproof vest, said CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He also took strategic steps to avoid detection like swapping the licence plates on a rental car linked to both shootings, concealing his identity and avoiding Brown University's expansive network of 1200 security cameras by opening fire in a building equipped with only two exterior cameras, and with multiple exits and entrances.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Without the ability to interview or prosecute the suspect, the motive remains the hardest question, Wackrow said, and there's a chance investigators will not find the answers even after doing exhaustive searches of digital history and physical evidence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Investigators have mapped some of the suspect's movements in the years before his attacks, but much of his past remains a mystery.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/portugal" rel="" target="_blank" title="Portuguese"><span>Portuguese</span></a><span> national attended the same academic program as Loureiro in Portugal from 1995 to 2000, after which he studied at Brown University on an F1 visa, a non-immigrant visa for international students to study full-time.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bondi-shooting-seven-days-on-memorials-day-of-reflection-to-mark-one-week-since-shooting/e46cadb7-a8c5-42b2-92a7-be28c8b53b3d" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>How Australians are marking seven days since 15 people were killed in Bondi</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He was enrolled in Brown from September 2000 to April 2001, when he took a leave of absence before formally withdrawing in July 2003, the university said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There has been no formal explanation from the university on the basis for the leave, but according to CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, it could also point to a potential motive.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Miller said investigators will likely ask questions like: Did he blame a life event for derailing his success as a former student who was described by his then-classmates as "brilliant" but also exceptionally difficult? What issue caused him not to return?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Details on the suspect's whereabouts between 2001 and 2017, however, have proved elusive at this stage.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the suspect's strategies do suggest he may have been planning for an encounter with police or an escape, Wackrow said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And it begs the question, according to Miller: What happened to make the suspect change course and decide to take his own life? One scenario, he says, could be the suspect was alerted authorities were on his trail.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>What were his movements after the shootings?</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The suspect's last known address was in Miami this year, and he rented a storage unit in Salem starting from an unspecified date in November.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He rented a hotel room in Boston from November 26 to 30 before renting a grey Nissan Sentra with Florida plates in the same city and then driving in the car to Brown University on December 1.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The car was seen several times by witnesses in the area of the school over the course of the next 12 days.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On December 13, the suspect opened fire at students in the on-campus auditorium of the Barus and Holley building, killing Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, and injuring nine others.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Over the next day, the suspect returned to Massachusetts and switched the licence plates of the rental car during his time there to an unregistered plate from Maine.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On December 15, the suspect fatally shot Loureiro at the professor's home in Brookline before immediately driving back to a storage facility in Salem where he had rented a unit.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/pope-leo-summons-worlds-cardinals-for-a-key-assembly-to-help-him-govern-the-church/e4131721-db0a-43ae-b26c-5aed5b2d760c" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Pope Leo summons world's cardinals for 'significant' meeting</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It appears the suspect then swiped into his storage unit in Salem the same day and did not swipe out, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Details of the autopsy released Friday estimated the suspect died on December 16, two days earlier than officials previously believed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The development called into question a line in the affidavit filed by prosecutors, which said Neves Valente called the car rental agency at the airport in Hartford, Connecticut on Thursday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A federal agent testified a man identifying himself by the name of the suspect called into the branch and asked to return the rented Nissan Sentra there.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some leads developed in the investigation turned out not to be valid, according to Neronha, which he said is not unusual. When asked by CNN's Erin Burnett whether the Thursday call wasn't actually from the suspect, Neronha said, "That's correct."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Beyond the discrepancy, authorities on Thursday spent frantic hours trying to track the suspect and the car they believed he was driving, and had information he would be returning his rented car in Boston and boarding a flight out of Logan International Airport, according to a law enforcement official.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His storage unit served as a "logical base of operations," said Miller, and his arrival in the Brown University area nearly two weeks before the shooting indicates he had been planning for the attack.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Was there any relationship between the suspect and the MIT professor he killed?</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Investigators were only able to identify a potential link between the Brown University shooting and the MIT professor killing in the past two days after officials initially said there was no connection between the crimes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After authorities confirmed the suspect and Loureiro were students at the same university, it left more uncertainty as there's no information the two had any relationship beyond briefly overlapping as physics students and a shared time on campus.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Still, authorities say he targeted the professor.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Nuno Morais, one of his former classmates, told the Portuguese website Publico the suspect and Loureiro were among the top students at the school, but their personalities were starkly different.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/victoria-public-transport-fare-hike/4bf78e2f-0459-40cf-a39c-2997466f7243" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Aussies in one state to face public transport fare hike within days</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A former colleague of Loureiro said the professor and the suspect were enrolled in the best physics course in Portugal and described their academic environment as highly competitive.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's completely inexplicable," Bruno Soares Goncalves, president of the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon, told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some of the questions investigators will be asking, according to Miller, are: Did Loureiro and the suspect know each other? Were they competitors or rivals? Did the suspect see Loureiro as an enemy he felt he needed to kill or someone he blamed for any failures?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The suspect had to research the home address of Loureiro, and it was a highly targeted killing, which points to premeditation, Miller said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A former classmate of the suspect told CNN's Burnett he recognised Loureiro when the news of his death came out. Scott Watson, a professor at Syracuse University, said the MIT professor would sometimes come to Brown, but added he was unsure if Loureiro and the suspect were friends.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Who was the tipster who helped crack the case open?</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At Thursday's news conference when officials announced the suspect was found dead, they repeatedly praised an unidentified tipster and graduate of Brown University who broke the case open, saying "everybody in Providence owes this individual a debt of gratitude."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Investigators in their affidavit specifically pointed to a post on </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/reddit" rel="" target="_blank" title="Reddit"><span>Reddit</span></a><span>, in which a user described seeing a "grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental" near the shooting scene.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The author of the post is the same individual seen in the photo released by Providence Police as they sought to talk to the man they believed to have been "in proximity" to the suspect, according to Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Police later interviewed him, and he told them he recognised the person seen in surveillance images released by police as the man he saw near the car shortly before the shooting.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Reddit poster, identified in the affidavit only as John, said he first encountered the man inside a bathroom in the Barus and Holley building and noticed his clothing seemed inadequate for the cold weather.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/us-forces-stop-a-second-merchant-vessel-off-the-coast-of-venezuela-american-officials-say/efd5d314-5b24-4a18-b88d-7565a45549bc" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>US seizes second vessel off the coast of Venezuela</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Once the man left the building, John saw him approach the Nissan and appear to unlock it with a key fob before suddenly turning from the vehicle and walking in a different direction, the affidavit said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>John said he remained outside as the man kept circling back to the area before quickly changing directions every time he saw John, the document said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At one point, John confronted the man, asking him why he kept circling the block, he told investigators, according to the affidavit, to which the suspect responded: "Why are you harassing me."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>John then kept walking down the street as the man walked toward the car and the two didn't have any further encounters, the affidavit said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The rental car was just one piece of data investigators used to link the Brown shooting suspect to the fatal shooting of the MIT professor, along with a financial probe, the storage unit and extensive security footage.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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