The search for the gunman behind the Brown University massacre ended Thursday night in Salem, New Hampshire, where police discovered the body of the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Claudio Valente.
Valente, a Portuguese national and current student at the university, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The discovery came after a massive law enforcement response swarmed the area earlier in the day, following the identification of an abandoned vehicle with license plates linked to the investigation.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha confirmed that investigators found Valente in possession of a satchel and two firearms. Authorities noted the recovery of “evidence matching the scene of the crime,” effectively closing the net on the five-day manhunt.
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Providence Police Chief Oscar L. Perez, Jr. formally identified Valente during a late-night press conference, shedding light on the man responsible for the Saturday attack that left two students dead and nine others injured.
While the immediate threat has ended, the investigation is expanding. Law enforcement officials are actively probing potential ties between the campus attack and the recent killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts.
While a source close to the case cautioned that definitive evidence of a link is not yet confirmed, the parallel timing of the violence remains a key line of inquiry.
ORIGINAL REPORT: The five-day search for the gunman accused of killing two Brown University students came to a sudden end Thursday evening. Sources confirmed to Fox News that the suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a storage facility in New Hampshire.
The discovery occurred shortly after investigators located the suspect’s abandoned vehicle at the same location.
Law enforcement sources on the ground indicated that the shooter had a storage unit registered in his name at the facility. While surveillance footage confirmed he had entered the building, authorities spent hours working to determine if he had ever exited.
When agents ultimately breached the facility, they discovered the suspect’s body, bringing a conclusion to a manhunt that had gripped the Northeast.
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Just hours prior to the discovery, Providence officials announced they had positively identified the shooter and secured an arrest warrant. The investigation had rapidly gained momentum earlier in the day, with forensic teams recovering unfired ammunition at the original crime scene—evidence believed to carry the killer’s touch DNA.
Authorities are still working to piece together the suspect’s movements following the double homicide of students Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umar Zokov, 18.
Investigators are also continuing to probe a potential link between this attack and a separate homicide at MIT, a connection that suggests the violence may have been part of a broader, multi-state timeline.
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