What initially appeared to be two isolated acts of violence is turning into a unified manhunt on the East Coast of the United States. Authorities are now investigating a direct link between the shooting at Brown University in Providence and the shooting death of Portuguese professor Nuno Loureiro, which occurred in the Boston area.
According to information provided this Thursday, December 18, by the Associated Press, sources close to the process confirm that a common suspect has been identified in both crimes. This revelation changes the initial narrative put forward by the FBI which, at the beginning of the week, found no evidence of a connection between the incidents.
If this thesis proved to be true, the sequence of events began on Saturday, in campus of Brown University when a gunman stormed the engineering building, killing two students and injuring nine. The attacker managed to escape, taking advantage of surveillance “dead zones” in an old part of the complex.
After 48 hours, around 80 kilometers away, the tragedy struck the MIT academic community. Portuguese physicist Nuno Loureiro, 47, was shot in his own home in Brookline. The scientist, born in Viseu, was transported to the hospital, but did not survive his injuries, dying on Tuesday.
Despite the existence of more than a thousand cameras on the Brown campus, the suspect was cautious. Images recovered by Providence police show a man with a robust build and approximately 1.73 meters tall, but the constant use of a mask and the fact that he avoids looking at cameras has made it difficult to create an accurate robotic portrait.
“The best hope for resolution will come from the public,” said Katherine Schweit, a former FBI agent, stressing that the fact that the shooter was not detained at the scene — something rare in these types of attacks — suggests meticulous planning.
Nuno Loureiro’s legacy
In Massachusetts, mourning mixes with disbelief. Loureiro was one of the most brilliant minds of his generation in the field of nuclear fusion. Graduated in Lisbon and with a doctorate obtained in London, he led the Plasma Science and Fusion Center from MIT since last year. His colleagues describe him not only as a top scientist, but as a compassionate mentor and a universally admired leader.
Police are urging anyone who was near the Brown campus in the week before the attack to check video footage on their cell phones in hopes of finding footage of the suspect surveilling the area.