BOSTON — The suspected shooter who murdered two Brown University students on Saturday and an MIT physics professor on Monday has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Tonight our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little easier,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said at a press conference at Brown University held about 30 minutes after the killer’s body was found on Thursday. “I want to thank the people of Providence for stepping up and coming together during an extraordinarily difficult time.”

FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said “We got him.”

“State, local and federal law enforcement officials have been working hand-in-hand around the clock to identify the shooter and prevent him from inflicting further harm,” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said at a later press conference at the federal courthouse in Boston.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said “Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last week’s gun violence.

“Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing,” Paxson’s statement continued. “I want to thank the dedicated city, state and federal law enforcement agencies that worked tirelessly on this case. We hope this brings an increased sense of safety for our community.”

The shooter identified

Authorities identified the shooting suspect as Claudio Neves-Valente and confirmed that the 48-year-old man was also tied to the slaying of an MIT professor in his home in Brookline.

Federal authorities had the same day issued a criminal complaint for Neves-Valente’s arrest on a charge of “transporting a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony with the firearm.” That complaint and an FBI affidavit in support of the charges was unsealed following his death.

Neves-Valente is a Portuguese national. The MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, was also Portuguese.

U.S. Attorney Foley said that Neves-Valente, whose name authorities learned only within the previous 24 hours, and Loureiro attended the same academic program from 1995 to 2000. She said that authorities believe the two men knew each other but did not know when they had last contact.

Colonel Oscar L. Perez, Jr., the Providence chief of police, said that Neves-Valente was on a student visa in the country and had applied for a Green Card and had obtained legal status.

Foley said that Neves-Valente was residing in Miami when he came to Boston, rented a car —a bluish-gray Nissan Sentra — and began to stake out the Brown campus before Saturday’s shooting. He then murdered Loureiro and “immediately … drove to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where he had rented a storage unit in November of this year.”

Foley said that extensive financial investigation traced Neves-Valente’s movements and activities. She described him as “sophisticated in hiding his tracks” and had even replaced the license plate of his rented vehicle with an unregistered Maine license plate.

Brown President Paxson said that Neves-Valente was a Brown graduate student in the physics master’s of science to PhD track for three semesters from 2000 to 2001, when he stopped taking courses. He formally withdrew from the program in 2003 and “has no active affiliation” with the school.

He took only physics classes, Paxson said, most of which are held in the Barus & Holley building where Saturday’s deadly shooting took place.

“While Brown remains committed to searching all institutional systems to identify any pertinent information to assist law enforcement, we have thus far found no indication of any concerns pertaining to conduct or any public safety interactions during the short time Neves Valente was enrolled as a graduate student,” Paxson said.

Perez said he wanted to “offer my deepest condolences to the families, the victims. It was for them that this work was put together to put this work together to make sure that they get the justice they deserve and that this person was held accountable.”

“The unthinkable happened in our state, the unthinkable happened in Providence, the unthinkable happened at Brown University,” Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee said. “And we will be forever changed.”

Authorities say that a person of interest seen interacting with the shooter “blew this case wide open” when he came forward to police, identified himself as the person in the video and provided key information.

The body

Federal agents, search warrant in hand, breached a storage unit door at Extra Space Storage in Salem, New Hampshire, at around 9 p.m. Thursday, U.S. Attorney Foley said.

Inside, authorities found the suspected shooter dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, with two firearms lying beside his body. No other objects were found inside, Foley said, adding that investigators were still searching the unit and area for evidence as she spoke. Authorities confirmed he was their suspect through the identification of objects seen in surveillance video from Brown University, including a distinctive satchel he wore.

“This is the evidence we have right now,” Foley said in how authorities concluded this was the body of the shooter. “We are coming to you tonight because the federal complaint was unsealed and we wanted to provide you with the information and ensure the public that law enforcement collectively believe that we have identified the person and that person is dead.”

Perez said that the investigation really took off when investigators found a vehicle of interest that they then tracked to a car rental in Massachusetts and were able to get the suspect’s name from there.

The Herald was on the ground in Salem, New Hampshire, as police and federal authorities surrounded the self-storage facility on Hampshire Road off of Route 28, just north of the Massachusetts border.

The New Hampshire development came not long after sources said that investigators were probing a possible connection between the two shootings.

The new investigative details pushed back a press conference Thursday at Brown University originally scheduled for 4 p.m. that did not begin until 9:35 p.m. A federal press conference was held roughly an hour later from the U.S. District Court in Boston.

MIT connection

Media outlets, including the Boston Herald, confirmed many hours before it was announced that investigators had linked the two shootings.

The detail was first reported by WPRI— who reported they were told this by “senior law enforcement officials.” A law enforcement source also told the Herald both fatal shootings “are connected” and an arrest will come “soon.”

The link was a new one because as late as Tuesday, Boston FBI SAC Docks told reporters that investigators were not aware of a link.

“At this time, there seems to be no connection as it relates to that particular incident,” Docks said at a press conference. He added that the bureau was in contact with the Massachusetts State Police and that any evidence of their connection would be shared.

Foley said it was in “the last 24 to 48 hours … that the link began to be established.”

New Hampshire

The Herald arrived at the storage facility location a little after 7 p.m. and found a significant law enforcement presence already at the location, just north of the Massachusetts border. The road was shut down to traffic and police turned away residents who live in the closed-off zone.

Providence Police were joined by other law enforcement agencies, including local, state, and federal. The Herald spotted agents from at least the U.S. Marshals service and the FBI, and authorities have indicated that even more agencies, including the ATF, were involved.

Law enforcement from multiple agencies continued to come to Salem through the evening, with a dozen or more police vehicles seen heading to Hampshire Road at 8:50 p.m. Massachusetts license plates could be seen on multiple unmarked law enforcement vehicles. FBI evidence response team members could be seen donning gloves and carrying buckets just after Neves-Valente’s body was found.

Police in Methuen, Massachusetts, which shares a border with Salem, NH, confirmed the presence of law enforcement in the area, including from its own department, but said “there is no information indicating an imminent risk to the public or residents of Methuen.

“However, we encourage everyone to remain vigilant and exercise heightened caution,” the department added in a statement. “In particular, if you observe any individuals on foot who appear out of place, unfamiliar to the area, or behaving in a manner that seems unusual or suspicious, please report it.”

Methuen PD Chief Scott McNamara’s statement did not explicitly connect the activity to the Brown University or MIT professor killings from earlier in the weekend, but said that the activity “is connected to an ongoing effort to locate a suspect in an active investigation into a recent death.”

The shootings

Two were killed and nine others were wounded in the Saturday shooting at Brown University in Providence. The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. inside the Barus & Holley engineering building, where, according to the school’s academic calendar, finals were taking place.

Authorities have since identified the two deceased victims as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook. Authorities have not identified the people wounded.

Then on Monday, MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot multiple times inside his Gibbs Street home in Brookline, a Boston suburb about 50 miles north of Providence. The professor of nuclear science and engineering directed the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT since last year and has taught at the school since January 2016, according to his LinkedIn page.

Authorities in Providence released video and still images from those videos of the shooting suspect, who can be seen wearing a dark jacket, mask and hat as he walked around campus hours before the shooting. Authorities are continuing to ask the public for any information, with the FBI setting up a dedicated tip webpage at FBI.gov/brownuniversityshooting. Tipsters can contact the FBI by phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Providence Police Department at 401-272-3121.

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—Joe Dwinell contributed to this story.

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