Brown University shooting live updates: Police probing whether suspect is tied to MIT killing; person of interest identified

Aerial video from NBC Boston showed law enforcement officers outside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. Some law enforcement members could be seen in the video with guns drawn and pointed toward the building.

There is a large law enforcement presence in Salem, New Hampshire, according to video and aerial imagery from NBC Boston, which is believed to be in connection with the investigation into the Brown University shooting.

Authorities are looking into whether the same rental vehicle was seen at Brown University around the time of that shooting and near the home of the MIT professor around the time of that shooting, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.

That’s one of the potential links investigators are probing to determine whether the two killings are connected, the officials said.

The latest person of interest in the Brown University shooting was identified four days after authorities had to take an embarrassing step backward by releasing a man they had detained.

The man taken into custody Sunday morning at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, was let go because there was “no basis” to consider that he was the shooter, authorities said.

The fruitless apprehension bore a resemblance to the slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, when FBI Director Kash Patel declared that the "subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” That statement had to be walked back 90 minutes later.

Law enforcement has identified a new person of interest in connection with the mass shooting at Brown, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said today.

Officials are still working to determine whether the shooting of the MIT professor and the Brown shooting are linked.

Nuno Loureiro, 47, was born and raised in a small city in central Portugal. He studied in Lisbon and London and received a Ph.D. in physics from Imperial College.

He had worked at MIT since 2016. He was a professor in the department of nuclear science and engineering and the department of physics and was also director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the university said.

Loureiro’s research interests were “theory and computational simulation of nonlinear plasma dynamics,” according to his MIT bio.

Speaking to MIT News in 2018, Loureiro said of leading the Plasma Science and Fusion Center: “It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity — characteristics that define MIT. Fusion energy will change the course of human history. It’s both humbling and exciting to be leading a research center that will play a key role in enabling that change.”

Six of the nine people wounded in Saturday's attack are still at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence and listed as stable, officials said, as of this afternoon.

The three others have been released.

Two students were killed Saturday: Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. Cook 19, was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, while Umurzokov, 18, came from Uzbekistan. 

Providence police released security camera images yesterday of a person walking past a man authorities have deemed a person of interest.

Police urged the public to take a second look at video of a man walking through the East Side, hours before gunfire erupted at Brown.

In the video, the man is wearing a knit cap and a mask.

“Investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying and speaking to the individual shown in these photos who was in proximity of the person of interest,” police wrote on X in a post that included images of someone in a short blue coat and a light-colored hoodie.

Police are looking into whether the fatal shooting this week of Loureiro, the MIT professor, in Brookline, Massachusetts, is linked to the mass shooting at Brown, four senior law enforcement officials told NBC News. 

At a news conference this week, the FBI said there was nothing at that stage of the investigation to link the two shootings. As the investigations have continued, authorities are exploring additional leads to determine whether there’s a connection.

Loureiro was a world-renowned plasma physicist and fusion scientist who was director of the university’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, according to MIT. 

Police investigate possible link between Brown University attack and shooting of MIT professor

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Providence police reminded local residents to search their security cameras, as well as their own memories, for any leads in the Brown shooting.

The agency issued a map yesterday that displays where the gunman might have been strolling Saturday, before and immediately after having killed two students.