Police are investigating a connection between Brown’s shooting and the killing of the MIT professor, AP sources said

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Authorities said Thursday they are looking for a link between last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology two days later near Boston.

That’s according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The two said investigators had identified a person of interest in the shooting and were actively searching for that person.

On Saturday, an assailant in Brown killed two students and injured nine others in a classroom in the school’s engineering building.

About 50 miles (80 kilometers) north, MIT professor Nuno FG Loreiro was shot and killed Monday night at his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline. The 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist died in hospital the next day.

The FBI previously said it was not aware of any connection between the cases.

How is Brown investigating?

It has been almost a week since the shooting at Brown. There have been other high-profile attacks that took days or more to arrest or find those responsible, including the brazen New York City sidewalk killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO last year, which took five days.

But frustration is growing in Providence that the person behind the attack managed to escape and a clear image of their face has yet to emerge.

“There is no discouragement among people who understand that not every case can be resolved quickly,” state Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a news conference Wednesday.

Authorities have searched the area for evidence and are pleading with the public to check any phones or security footage they may have from the week of the attack, believing the attacker may have been at the scene ahead of time.

Investigators have released several videos from the hours and minutes before and after the shooting that show a man who, according to police, matches the description given by witnesses of the shooting. In the clip, the person is standing, walking and running on the street outside the campus, but always wearing a mask or with their heads turned.

Although Brown officials say there are 1,200 cameras on campus, the attack took place in the older part of the engineering building, which has fewer cameras. And investigators believe the shooter entered and left through a door that faces the campus along a residential street, which could explain why Brown’s camera didn’t capture footage of the man.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said Wednesday that the city is doing “everything possible” to keep residents safe. However, he admitted it was a “scary time in the city” and that families were having tough conversations about whether to stay in the city for the holidays.

“We’re doing everything we can to reassure people, to provide comfort, and that’s the best answer I can give to that difficult question,” Smiley said when asked if the city was safe.

What can be learned from past research?

While it’s not unusual for someone to go missing after such a high-profile shooting, it’s rare.

In such targeted and highly publicized attacks, the shooters usually kill themselves or are killed or arrested by police, said Katherine Schwitt, a retired FBI agent and expert on mass shootings. When they go away, searches can take time.

“The best they can do is what they do now, which is continue to press all the facts they have as fast as they can,” she said. “And, really, the best hope for a solution is coming from the public.”

In the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, it took investigators four days to catch the two brothers. In 2023, Army reservist Robert Card was found dead in Lewiston, Maine, two days after killing 18 people and injuring 13 others in an apparent suicide.

The man accused of killing conservative political figure Charlie Kirk in September turned himself in about a day and a half after the attack on Utah Valley University’s campus. And Luigi Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last year, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.

Felipe Rodriguez, a retired New York police detective sergeant and assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it’s clear the shooters are learning from others who have been arrested.

“Most of the time an active shooter is going in, and he’s going to do what we call maximum carnage, maximum damage,” Rodriguez said. “And at this point, they’re actually trying to get away. And they’re avoiding the police with a really effective method, which I’ve never seen before.”

Investigators described the man they are looking for as about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall and stocky. The attacker’s motive remains a mystery, but officials said Wednesday that no evidence indicates a specific individual was targeted.

MIT mourns the loss of a respected professor

Loureiro, who is married, joined MIT in 2016 and last year was named to lead the school’s Center for Plasma Science and Fusion, where he works to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of MITl’s largest laboratories, had more than 250 people working in seven buildings when he took over. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.

He grew up in Viseu in central Portugal and studied in Lisbon before earning his doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at the Institute for Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon before joining MIT, the university said.

“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his frank, compassionate manner,” Dennis White, an engineering professor who leads MIT’s Center for Plasma Science and Fusion, told a campus publication.

Loureiro said he hopes his work will shape the future.

“It’s not hyperbole to say that MIT is the place to find solutions to some of humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said when he was named to lead the plasma science lab last year. “Fusion Energy Will Change the Course of Human History.”

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This story was updated to remove references to MIT being an Ivy League school.

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Richer and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.