By CJ Gunther, Nate Raymond, Jana Winter and Brad Brooks
SALEM, New Hampshire, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University last weekend is dead, a U.S. attorney said, as authorities investigate whether the same person killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days after the rampage at Brown.
Christina Sterling, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Leah Foley in Boston, confirmed the suspect is deceased.
Two other federal officials also confirmed the suspected Brown shooter was dead. It is believed that his body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown Boston, where a large contingent of law enforcement officers descended Thursday night in an action related to the Brown University investigation.
One Department of Justice official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said the suspected shooter had killed himself. The sources did not provide more details on the identification of the suspect or why investigators think the two cases may be linked.
But they said that federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, where MIT is located, had drafted charges against an individual they are seeking in the investigation.
MANHUNT LEAVES STUDENTS, RESIDENTS 'RESTLESS AND EAGER'
The manhunt since Saturday's shooting inside a classroom building at Brown University has left students and residents of Providence, Rhode Island, “restless and eager” for an arrest, said Mayor Brett Smiley. Two students at the Ivy League school were killed and at least eight were wounded.
On Monday, MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, was fatally shot in his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, some 50 miles (80 km) north of Brown's campus.
An FBI official had said this week that the authorities did not believe there was a link between Saturday's shooting at Brown and the MIT professor's murder. Loureiro was a member of the departments of nuclear science and engineering and physics as well as MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Investigators in Providence said the suspect in the Brown University shooting escaped on foot into nearby streets, prompting a search that relied heavily on residential security footage because of a lack of surveillance cameras in the classroom building and surrounding area.
Police released images and video of a masked man believed to be the shooter, based on survivor accounts, and have repeatedly asked for the public's help in identifying him. The footage showed the suspect walking in a nearby neighborhood both before and immediately after the attack, including moments when police vehicles arrived with flashing lights.
“He could be anywhere,” Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said on Wednesday, adding that authorities did not initially know the suspect’s identity or motive.
Police also circulated photos of another unidentified man seen near the area, saying they wanted to speak with him as a potential witness who may have relevant information.
Authorities initially announced a person was in custody a day after the shooting, but later released that individual after determining he was not involved.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Providence, CJ Gunther in Salem, Nate Raymond and Brad Brooks; Additional reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson, David Gregorio, William Mallard and Saad Sayeed)
