US cops identify new person of interest in Brown shooting, probe possible ties to MIT prof’s killing

PROVIDENCE – The US authorities on Dec 18 identified a person of interest in the shooting at Brown University
and are investigating whether there is a possible connection to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor
, according to two people briefed on the matter who were not authorised to speak publicly about the investigation.

Investigators are searching for the individual and a car that the person is believed to have rented, one official said. The authorities have not publicly identified a suspect in either case.

The authorities believe the rented vehicle is the same make and model as a car identified in connection with the shooting of the MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts, the official said.

An alert issued to the police in the Boston area directed officers to look for the car and warned that anyone in it could be armed, dangerous and wanted in connection with the Brookline homicide.

The alert did not mention the shooting at Brown.

A few minutes after 4pm on the afternoon of Dec 13, a masked gunman dressed in black burst into a lecture hall in the Barus and Holley science building at Brown, yelled something incomprehensible and started firing at students
who had gathered for a review session ahead of final exams.

Two students were killed – Mr Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov,
an 18-year-old from Virginia, and Ms Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama. Nine other students were injured and six remained hospitalised as at the afternoon of Dec 18, all in stable condition.

On the night of Dec 15, the authorities in Brookline were called to the home of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, who had been shot. He was pronounced dead on the morning of Dec 16.

Mr Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, initially said there seemed to be “no connection” between the attack at Brown and Prof Loureiro’s death.

The shooting at Brown drew a massive police response of about 400 law enforcement officers, who poured onto the campus and the East Side neighbourhood around the Ivy League school on the afternoon of Dec 13.

Heavily armed officers searched campus buildings room to room looking for the killer, while others scoured neighbouring streets. Helicopters circled overhead, but the shooter managed to escape.

The police detained a person of interest early on the morning of Dec 14, a 24-year-old man, bringing some calm to the jittery city. It was short-lived. Scientific tests on evidence cleared the man
, and he was released. NYTIMES