- 1 day ago
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell - Season 2025 Episode 243 -
Episode 243
Episode 243
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00the suspect in that shooting
00:02that killed two students injured nine others on saturday has been
00:07announced tonight by authorities to have
00:09taken his own life through a self-inflicted gunshot wound
00:13joining us now from salem new hampshire is ms now investigative reporter
00:18mark sentia and mark of this no cell new hampshire is where the story ended
00:23tonight
00:23how did we get to salem new hampshire
00:28police say it was a combination of sort of high-tech policing and old-fashioned
00:32investigations we are told the person of interest in the brown university mass
00:37shooting has been found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound here in a
00:41storage facility in new hampshire he is believed to have taken his life
00:45tonight police have identified him as claudio neves valentes 48 years old a
00:51brown student a portuguese national his last known address was in miami florida
00:56the fbi says they are still working at this time to determine a motive just why
01:02he opened fire inside the engineering building at brown university killing two
01:07students and injuring nine others police say they track the killer the way it
01:12worked they said there's tracking the killer it all started with the hit on an
01:16lpr a license plate reader detectives and agents follow the leads to a rental car
01:21location they pulled some video and that they say was the break in the case
01:26police found the rental car here in new hampshire the car was near a storage
01:30facility the license plate we're told does not match the vehicle investigators
01:35also working to determine and they believe the same rental car was on the
01:40campus of brown near the campus of brown the day of the mass shooting now
01:44according to four law enforcement officials investigators are also working
01:49because lawrence at this point there are still a lot of unanswered questions so
01:53at this point law enforcement officials tell us they tell us that investigators
01:59are working to determine if valenti may also be connected to the murder of an
02:04mit professor in his massachusetts home two days after the mass shooting at
02:10brown university they're looking to see if that same rental car was near the mit
02:15professor's home we're told that is still being developed for law enforcement
02:20sources are telling us that at this point so lawrence while this chapter is done
02:25there are still many questions left to be answered and uh mark there were
02:32indications earlier tonight that there was also a news conference by law
02:36enforcement scheduled uh in boston tonight which could be related to the mit
02:42professor's murder what do we know about that we're still waiting on official
02:48confirmation of that lawrence again this is developing still you see behind me there
02:53is still a heavy law enforcement presence here many of the officers and agents have
02:58left many gone inside the fbi's ert evidence response team is here they'll be
03:02collecting and processing this scene so this is a very fluid situation here in new
03:08hampshire we're waiting word in boston but again according to four law enforcement
03:12sources who have been briefed they are investigating if the same person if valenti
03:18the same person who is believed to have been behind that deadly mass shooting at
03:22brown university is also connected to the death to the murder of an mit professor in
03:28his home in massachusetts two days after the shooting at brown uh mark they are taking
03:36questions and in providence at that press conference we're going to go back and see
03:39what we can learn the last press conference that we was a person that we wanted to speak
03:43with uh the work of the video collections that we had led us to identify that there was a
03:50person that actually encountered this individual so it corroborated everything that we saw we saw
03:54our person of interest we saw that there was a vehicle involved when this person came in broke the
04:00case in the sense that explained to us exactly what we thought we had seen and put that individual
04:05at the crime scene obviously that was that was the break because we were knew whether we were we
04:11were in the right direction to ensure that we were going after this individual but obviously took
04:16the case that we were in the right direction to ensure that we were in the right direction to
04:23make his life. Colonel Colonel. Go ahead. Steve. Thank you. Did Mr. Malenti act alone and is there an anti-semitism
04:29component behind him? As far as we know Steve he acted alone. Is there an anti-semitism component
04:33there? No no that we know of no. Colonel. John. Colonel. Colonel what was the events that led to the
04:39destroyer facility? So was he pursued there? Did he know authorities were going after him? When was he last
04:46alive? How did that play out? So it plays out in the sense that we obviously I just stated we collected
04:51all the evidence we were able to learn that there was a rental vehicle. We learned about that vehicle.
04:57There was financial records that were verified by the FBI obviously and other agencies I'm sorry actually
05:04so another agency so multiple agencies that verified financial records that brought us
05:09to that site to know that he had actually rented a site at the storage unit and then we ended up up
05:16and say. When he did that did he know authorities were coming or did he just go and like how long had
05:26he been in that storage unit? That we're not aware of John in the sense that all we knew is that we
05:31were on a men hunt and that's what he led us to.
05:35Amanda. Oh thanks. Chief I have some questions for you. So he graduated. He was at Brown more than 20 years ago.
05:43His last known address was in Miami and now he's here at Brown University potentially also at MIT.
05:50What do you know about what brought him up here? There's going to be unknown answers that we have no answer as far as that.
05:57But I obviously came up here and committed this horrific incident and this tragedy and that's all we knew.
06:03Our mission was to ensure that we could find them and bring them to justice.
06:06But yeah. No motive at this point. At this point. Correct.
06:09My follow up is of the evidence that you collected. Have you collected the handgun that you believe was used in the shooting?
06:16Had he collected any type of manifesto or evidence? Have you planned more shootings?
06:22So as far as I know that's the FBI evidence recovery team is up in Salem, New Hampshire and they're collecting whatever evidence is up there.
06:28This happened just now before we came up here.
06:30Bill.
06:31Any criminal history, political affiliations, any social media posts, anything of that sort that you can report to us about Mr. Valenti?
06:39Nothing that I know of. See, behind him. Go ahead. White shirt.
06:43Is there any indication that Mr. Valenti was planning any future attacks?
06:47Nothing that we know of. No. And the way back.
06:50Special Agent Docs, can you also tell us if they're the connection. I know you said you can't talk too much about the MIT.
06:56But the fact that it was a physics professor at MIT and in the physics building and he was studying physics.
07:01Have you tied all that up and why target one person in Massachusetts and then a whole class here in Providence?
07:10Yes, it is true that Mr. Valenti was a physics student. Also, we know that the MIT, the victim there, was in that discipline as well.
07:22I will tell you that there's multiple phases to an investigation. And so now in a sense that we know the subject, the subject is deceased,
07:30now that investigation continues to find out all of those answers to your question, sir.
07:35Did you go to school with a professor? Did you go to school with a professor who's still at the ground answer that?
07:40It is believed that in Lisbon that those two individuals attended the same university in Portugal.
07:48You have a follow-up in the back.
07:51We wanted to .
07:56Go to school.
07:57Go for it.
07:58Oh, thank you.
07:59Sorry.
08:00Empezo desde el principio.
08:02The question was, if I can briefly explain how we got to this individual and what occurred.
08:23So, verdaderamente lo que pasó, obviamente, el incidente del sábado 13 nos llevó a tomar evidencias,
08:28colectar evidencias de videos, de informaciones, y expliqué que es muy importante el trabajo de los policías,
08:34de los detectives en el piso, haciendo el trabajo duro, recolectando videos, recolectando testimonios.
08:40En este tipo de casos recibimos información, obviamente, de los videos que colectamos.
08:45Nos dimos cuenta que había un vehículo de interés y una persona de interés desde el principio.
08:51Eso nos llevó a después informarnos de la placa del carro, la descripción del carro,
08:57y eso nos llevó a darnos cuenta de que esa persona había rentado el vehículo en una compañía en Massachusetts.
09:04Después de que fue a Massachusetts, cogimos videos de la persona.
09:08Esa persona era en las mismas descripciones de la persona de interés de nosotros acá en la ciudad de Providence.
09:14De ahí pasamos con los agentes federales a investigar un poco más
09:19y llegamos a los récords financieros que nos llevó a New Hampshire en esta noche.
09:25Allá hubo una entrada táctica del equipo del FBI
09:28y encontramos que esta persona se había quitado la vida ellos mismos.
09:34Ahora estamos investigando más si hay algo que necesitamos saber más de él.
09:40Alex.
09:41Colonel, or is there a note or manifesto of some kind,
09:46and is that providing any information about a motive or anything that they might have found in the issue?
09:53Again, the FBI recovery team and forensics are up in Salem, New Hampshire.
09:58At this point, we don't have any of that.
10:00Any indication of why now?
10:02What's the significance behind why this happened on Saturday?
10:04That we don't know.
10:08Yeah, I don't think we know the answer to that question.
10:10I think there's a lot of unknowns with respect to motive.
10:14I mean, I think that the real issue here is the key was to identify this person,
10:19as we talked about yesterday.
10:20I think there are other answers that are coming.
10:23But, you know, once we're able to identify him,
10:25you know, thanks to that individual who came forward who led us to a plate,
10:29which led us to a rental car, which led us to that,
10:32he rented that car in his own name,
10:34that really broke the case open.
10:35But in terms of why Brown,
10:38I think that is a mystery.
10:40I think there may be something going on in Massachusetts
10:43that I'm not fully familiar with because we're working this angle,
10:48but I think the Massachusetts authorities will be able to share that.
10:50Yeah, I don't think we have any idea why now or why Brown,
10:55why these students, why this classroom.
10:58That is really unknown to us.
11:01And it may become clear.
11:03I hope that it does, but it hasn't as of right now.
11:06Fox, go ahead.
11:07This is for the Colonel or the Attorney General.
11:09By 216, there was a surveillance video that showed this second person
11:14that apparently blew this case wide open and also Mr. Blanton.
11:18You see them disappear behind bushes.
11:21Was this second person following the shooter?
11:25Did he recognize him and confront him?
11:27What was that interaction like?
11:30And I have a follow.
11:30That's a great question.
11:31And I'll explain in the affidavit that the general stated they will be released.
11:36But I'll give you a brief sort of explanation about that.
11:40The person that we wanted to speak with had an interaction with this individual earlier in the day
11:46and observed him later at that time where you just stated
11:49and decided that he was going to encounter him and asked him why he was inside Brown.
11:54At that point, the person, the subject of interest, Justin Neves, actually ran.
11:59He was caught up by our person that we wanted to speak with.
12:02There was sort of a conversation between the two of them, and Neves asked him,
12:07why are you harassing me?
12:08And at that point, the person that broke the case walked away.
12:12And that information was critical to us because he was able to corroborate
12:15where our detectives were seeing on video, and he was able to provide a great explanation.
12:19And my follow-up question is,
12:20why did it take a citizen to notice a suspicious person right next to Brown University and not the police?
12:27And also, how long was the vehicle parked where it was?
12:32Was it days, hours, minutes?
12:35It appeared to be days as far as everything.
12:37Why would a civilian observe that to be suspicious?
12:40It's a great point.
12:41And I like the fact that you're mentioning that and bringing that up.
12:44That's what we should all be doing, right?
12:46And it's just personality.
12:47Some people are more interested in finding out what others are doing.
12:50In this particular case...
12:51And joining our MSNOW coverage is MSNOW law enforcement analyst Tom Manger.
12:59Tom, we just heard the linkage there in that last question
13:03about who connected what became the person of interest to this case.
13:10And we just heard about that interaction of someone going up to this person and saying,
13:16what are you doing inside Brown?
13:18Someone who had the feeling there was something wrong with this person being there.
13:24Yeah.
13:24I mean, it just demonstrates that what cops were taught from day one,
13:31and that is you look for suspicious behavior.
13:34You can't say, oh, this person looks like they don't belong or whatever.
13:40It's the behavior that raises suspicion.
13:45And in this case, clearly someone thought it was odd that this individual was doing what
13:51he was doing, the way he was doing it.
13:54And even when you looked at the video of this individual that they released,
14:00you know, the way he was walking through neighborhoods, he would stop, he'd turn around,
14:04he'd look around.
14:05I would tell you that if, I think if many people would observe that,
14:11they would have thought, what's this guy doing?
14:13Why is he looking around the way he's looking around?
14:16That they would find that odd behavior.
14:19Now, would they go up and talk to him and ask him what he's doing in their neighborhood?
14:24Maybe not.
14:24But it certainly was a good fortune in this case that someone had the wherewithal to confront
14:31this man about his behavior.
14:33We heard some very general statements by the mayor at the beginning of the press conference
14:38and by others.
14:39But it wasn't until that last question by that reporter that we actually got the linkage.
14:44We actually got, they made reference to the people of Providence helping out and some particular
14:50individual being very, very helpful, who, as they put it, broke the case.
14:55Now we know who that person was.
14:57That person saw this behavior, confronted that person, but then eventually walked away from
15:04the suspicious person.
15:05And then only after the murders did that witness then realize that there was information there
15:13that the authorities needed to know.
15:15Yeah, and I've heard reports that that individual may have jotted down the tag number of the
15:22car, and that may have been an additional bit of information that he provided.
15:27But I thought this was a bit of an odd press conference in totality.
15:34They spent a lot of time thanking each other, patting themselves on the back, which is fine
15:41to do, but don't make that the main thrust of a press conference.
15:45What the people were there to hear was, what are the facts of the case?
15:49How did you, what led you to this individual?
15:53You know, how did you, you know, get to the point where you found him deceased in this storage
16:00unit?
16:01Those are questions that they really didn't spend a lot of time answering.
16:06And I think that's what folks are actually interested in knowing.
16:09They did say that the affidavit would be online.
16:12While I was sitting here, I was on my phone seeing if I could get on the Rhode Island,
16:17State of Rhode Island, Rhode Island website.
16:20It's not on there yet.
16:22But that affidavit will have the details, I think, that we're all interested in, in terms
16:27of how did they connect the dots?
16:29How did they get, follow this individual?
16:32Lawrence, there's so many things with regard, when you deal with rental cars.
16:37The rental car companies have a lot of technology to be able to track where their vehicles have
16:43been, the license plate readers that are all over the states, you know, in different
16:50places.
16:51So it's really not that difficult to put a license plate into a database and be able to
17:01track a vehicle specifically that you know the license plate that you're looking for.
17:06So my guess is that a lot of this technology assisted them in locating this individual,
17:13ultimately.
17:14And, you know, whether he was trying to hide out in that storage unit, not sure, may have
17:22been, because that wouldn't be the first time that I've heard that folks, you know, do that.
17:25They're not going to go in a hotel that he can get in and out of this without, you know,
17:30seeing, talking to anybody.
17:33But it's, it's, you know, he had that car and that's, that car made him very findable.
17:39And when the police chief recited the initial new facts that they were reporting tonight,
17:46including the name of the, the person who then killed himself tonight, Claudio Valenti, said
17:5348 years old, said he was a Brown student.
17:56I'd like to hear more clarification of that.
17:58What does that mean?
17:59A Brown graduate or a Brown graduate student in a graduate program right now, but at age
18:0448?
18:04So is that past tense or present tense, a Brown student, but crucially said that he's
18:10from Portugal, which struck me instantly because I already knew that the MIT professor, Nuno
18:17Lurero, is from Portugal.
18:20And that, that Portugal connection was just sitting there without any examination until
18:27finally a reporter asked the FBI agent on the scene in Providence about that.
18:33And the FBI, the FBI agent then reveals, yes, they apparently went to the same university
18:39in Portugal at roughly, possibly the same time.
18:44That is a pretty big link.
18:46It's a huge link.
18:48And the fact that that wasn't expressed during your press conference, another reporter asked
18:55the question about the suspect being a Brown university student and said that, and in her
19:02question, she said he was a Brown student 20 years ago.
19:05Now, I don't know if that information is accurate, but she clearly had some kind of information
19:10and he talked about the fact, or she talked about the fact that he had been a student there
19:1420 years ago.
19:16But I think that that kind of information would have been much more informative for, you know,
19:26in terms of the details that the public wants to know about this case.
19:31And, and so I think, again, once the affidavits made public, all these details will be spelled
19:38out in the affidavit.
19:39But I would have, I would have thought, and certainly in my many years as a police chief
19:45doing pressers, you know, I knew that I, there was, you didn't lay the whole case out,
19:51but you certainly laid out enough information so that the public understood what the work
19:56that the, the, the, the agencies did, how the agencies work together.
20:00Here's what we accomplished.
20:01Here's what we did.
20:03And here ultimately is what happened.
20:05Let the public decide that you did a great job.
20:08Don't tell the public that you're doing a great job.
20:10So again, I, you know, maybe it's just a stylistic difference that, that I have with the way that
20:15presser was done.
20:16But those two, those two issues, the fact that he was a student there 20 years ago, the
20:21fact that he went to school with the MIT professor, huge links.
20:25And I'm, and that, that certainly will be the top, the real topics of discussion moving
20:32forward.
20:33Tom Major, thank you very much for your coverage of this with us tonight.
20:37We appreciate that.
20:38We're going to be, take a break.
20:39The breaking news at this hour is that state, local, and federal law enforcement authorities
20:50in Providence, Rhode Island have announced tonight that their suspect, who they had been pursuing
20:56in the murder of two students at Brown University is named Claudio Valente, and that he was found
21:04dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire tonight.
21:12Ken Delaney, an MSNOW senior investigative reporter, is joining us.
21:17Ken, what more do we know at this hour?
21:19Good evening, Lawrence.
21:21Well, we've obtained a copy of the affidavit, the arrest warrant that authorities obtained
21:26when they thought he was alive and they were going to try to arrest him on murder charges.
21:30And it lays out the chain of events that led them to track him down at that storage unit.
21:35As you were talking about with Chief Manger in the last segment, remember they released
21:41a video of a person they said they wanted to talk to yesterday, who they believe encountered
21:45this suspect.
21:48That person they're calling John in the affidavit, they learned about him through a Reddit post
21:52where he said, the authorities really need to look at a gray Nissan with Florida plates
21:58because I saw this person acting suspiciously.
22:01They looked at video, they saw this person, they didn't know who he was though, and they
22:05wanted to talk to him, so they released that video yesterday.
22:07He saw the video, he then came forward to Providence police officers, they interviewed
22:12him, they showed him video and photos.
22:14He connected the suspect to the car, and then police used their license plate readers and
22:20other video technology to identify the plate.
22:22Then they got a plate.
22:23They started tracing where the car was rented and where it had gone afterwards, and that's
22:29how they found their way to that storage unit and identified this person.
22:34And so that's where we are now.
22:36And again, they were going to charge him in this case, so they're confident that he was
22:40the shooter at Brown.
22:43They're also looking into, and Massachusetts authorities are looking into, and trying to determine
22:49whether he was also the perpetrator, the person who shot and killed that MIT professor a couple
22:55of days ago up in Boston.
22:56That is not confirmed at this hour, but that is the direction that authorities are going
23:00in Lawrence.
23:02Yeah.
23:02And Ken, we learned almost by happenstance in the press conference when someone asked the
23:08FBI about what the connection might be to the MIT professor.
23:14We discover that the MIT professor and the shooter, the now dead suspect, went to the
23:22same university in Portugal.
23:25Yeah, that was remarkable.
23:26It's kind of burying the lead there.
23:28I mean, that news conference, as Chief Manger said, was disjointed, and it was not really
23:33conveying information in a linear fashion.
23:36And so we had to pore over what they're actually saying.
23:39But they did release a lot of information.
23:40And that seems like a key fact, and I think we're going to learn more in a few moments
23:45when Massachusetts authorities and federal authorities are scheduled to hold a news conference
23:50about the MIT case.
23:52But again, it's just remarkable how these cases work, where for days they have nothing,
23:58and they just are at loggerheads, and they just don't know where to turn and who the suspect
24:04is.
24:05And then all of a sudden, there's a break, and within hours, they've got their person,
24:10and they trace him to the storage unit, and they find him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot
24:14wound, Lawrence.
24:15And there's obviously some big unanswered questions, though.
24:17As they were pretty candid about during the news conference, they don't really have information
24:21right now, they say, about motive.
24:24In fact, they answered a question about whether there was an anti-Semitic motive, saying that
24:29they have no evidence of that.
24:30And so they're still trying to piece that together, and that's going to be an important
24:34avenue of investigation going forward.
24:37Ken, does the affidavit say anything about Claudio Valente's past and his association with
24:44Brown?
24:45Yes.
24:46It says that he was a student at Brown in 2000 and 2001, and just those years.
24:54So it doesn't appear that he completed a degree.
24:55And then it says he re-entered the country, it doesn't say from where, as a legal permanent
25:00resident in 2017 and listed Brown, listed as an affiliation with Brown in 2017.
25:08But so it's a bit of a question mark, actually, what his affiliation was with Brown.
25:12Does he have a degree?
25:14How long was he there?
25:15We don't know.
25:15But he does have some affiliation, apparently, with Brown University.
25:18Tom Manger is still with us.
25:22Tom, we believe there's a press conference that will be happening in Boston soon.
25:28What would you be anticipating in that press conference?
25:33Well, I think we're all anticipating that there's going to be the distinct possibility that this
25:41same suspect is responsible for the killing of that MIT professor.
25:47It, you know, this, and there's a lot of information.
25:53I'm only on about page seven or eight of this affidavit.
25:56It's got 35 pages.
25:58But as was said, you know, he was there in the spring of 2000, 2001.
26:03He was a Ph.D. student, and when he returned to the country and listed Brown on his application,
26:13he put the address he used was the address of the building that he went into and shot those students.
26:19So clearly he knew that building, and perhaps that was where he spent most of his time
26:27when he was at Brown taking classes.
26:29But I think this press conference that they're going to do in Boston will, I think, finish the link.
26:40You know, if, in fact, this suspect is responsible for the death of the professor there,
26:47it'll tie the cases together.
26:50And then it'll be easier now to start doing the kind of research that needs to be done
27:00to answer the question, what was his motive?
27:02Why did he do these things that he did?
27:05What relationship did he have with this professor?
27:10And it'll be easier to get some of those answers.
27:13But if this person was the kind of loner that just didn't leave a trail of anything
27:19and never spoke to anybody, never put anything on social media,
27:22we may be unsatisfied with the information that we have access to.
27:29The shot we see there where there will be a press conference in Boston
27:33is clearly at the federal law enforcement officials' location.
27:38As you can see, it's the United States Attorney's Office there in Boston.
27:42We're going to squeeze in a quick break here before that press conference starts.
27:53We are awaiting a press conference by law enforcement in Boston.
27:57It is clearly set up there at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.
28:01This will be led by federal law enforcement authorities if it is comparable to the Providence press conference
28:08that we have already seen.
28:10It will include state, local, and federal law enforcement on the night
28:16when the Providence law enforcement team has announced
28:19that the suspect who they were pursuing in the Brown University murders
28:25was found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a storage locker in Salem, New Hampshire.
28:34Here's the press conference in Boston.
28:36I'm going to hand out some photos of the defendant.
28:38I know there's some interest in that.
28:40We'll email them to the folks on the live feed as well as soon as I walk away.
28:47And so the speaker today will be U.S. Attorney Leah Foley for the District of Massachusetts.
28:52She will be joined on the podium by Massachusetts State Police Colonel Noble,
29:00Brookline, Massachusetts Police Chief Pastor, P-A-S-T-E-R,
29:07Acting United States Attorney Sarah Bloom for the District of Rhode Island,
29:13Acting U.S. Marshal Kevin Neal for the District of Massachusetts,
29:17Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Goldwarm and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Holcomb.
29:26Leah will be taking questions if you have any.
29:29And folks on the live stream, I know there are a lot of people.
29:31If you have a question, text Caroline and I,
29:33and we're happy to try to do what we can to get the question asked.
29:36I apologize for the heat in here.
29:39I'm trying to fix that.
29:40All right, any questions before we try to...
29:42The last two names, Luke Goldwarm, G-O-L-D-W-O-R-M,
29:51and David Holcomb, H-O-L-C-O-M-B.
29:55Will you be emailing the PDF?
29:57We'll email the PDF, but it's going to take me a minute to get back down there.
30:00But again, if you're on the live stream and you need this photo,
30:03Caroline and I will try to get it to you, like, now.
30:06All right, so...
30:10The federal courthouse there will be led by the U.S. attorney
30:14in that federal district, Leah Foley.
30:17We have already had a press conference in Providence, Rhode Island, tonight
30:21where authorities there revealed that the suspect, Claudio Valenti, 48 years old,
30:28was found dead in a storage locker in Salem, New Hampshire,
30:32by gunshot wounds, self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
30:36He was the suspect they were pursuing in the murders at Brown University.
30:41It is believed that what we will be hearing tonight
30:44is that that same suspect is linked to the murder of an MIT professor
30:51two days after the murders at Brown University.
30:55Both of these cases may be wrapped up in exactly the same way
31:00in that storage locker in Salem, New Hampshire.
31:03Ken Delaney is with us.
31:05Ken, it looks like this is what we're going to be hearing
31:09about this suspect in this case also.
31:14Yeah, and as you mentioned, we heard a key piece of evidence earlier
31:17at the Providence News conference where the FBI revealed that
31:20this suspect attended a university in Portugal
31:25with the now-deceased professor at MIT.
31:28So that seems like a key piece of information.
31:31You know, I was looking through the affidavit, Lawrence.
31:33There's a lot of photos in it, including they pulled video
31:36from the Alamo rental car facility where he rented the car,
31:41the Nissan, where he went down to Providence or up to Providence
31:44to commit this, allegedly commit this murder.
31:47And so he's not wearing a mask in this video.
31:50And he looks like a nondescript middle-aged physicist.
31:54I mean, he could be anybody.
31:55It's really an unusual situation.
31:58Often we see in these kinds of shooting attacks,
32:03these kind of random acts of violence, people wearing tactical gear
32:07or dressed in black or this was nothing of the kind.
32:11This was somebody who was blending in and clearly wanted to get away.
32:15Although, as soon as he realized authorities were catching up to him,
32:19apparently, he took his life.
32:22And we know that they caught up with him through happenstance,
32:26through a witness that they identified.
32:29They first didn't know that witness's identity.
32:31They issued a video.
32:32He came forward.
32:34He matched the car, the rental car,
32:36with the suspect that he had encountered and thought was suspicious
32:39on the streets around Brown University.
32:42And then the authorities were able to find the plate
32:44because there are license plate readers,
32:46there are video surveillance, there are cameras around,
32:49and they were able to isolate a photo of the license plate.
32:52And that is what led them to this suspect, Lawrence.
32:54And, Tom Major, we know that this press conference coming up in Boston
32:59will be led by the U.S. attorney there,
33:02whose federal district extends north of the border of Massachusetts
33:07into Salem, New Hampshire.
33:09So Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney there, has jurisdiction over that area.
33:13But they also said that the Rhode Island U.S. attorney
33:16will be joining this press conference.
33:18That seems to be the clearest linkage we could have of these two cases.
33:22And in this press conference in Boston, the Brookline police chief,
33:27Brookline is a separate town just across the border from Boston,
33:31surrounded actually on more than one side by Boston.
33:35It's wedged into the west side of Boston.
33:38That is where the professor was murdered.
33:41And so we have law enforcement with jurisdiction
33:45over the location where the professor was murdered.
33:47We have law enforcement at this same press conference
33:49with jurisdiction over the Brown University murders.
33:53Yeah, in police work, we used to call that a clue.
33:57I think that that does indicate that there's a linkage there.
34:01There was on the second to last page of the affidavit,
34:05there's a line in there that says that the suspect was
34:09in the area of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.
34:13And so I don't know why they would throw that in the affidavit.
34:18It doesn't explain any other other than the fact that he was recently in that area.
34:23And as Ken said, the photos of the suspect at the car rental place,
34:33you could see at one photo, he's got his arms locked behind his back.
34:38And it's the exact same posture, exact same look as you saw in one of the videos.
34:44And so, I mean, even in still pictures, you look at the, you know, after looking at the videos,
34:52you think, yeah, that's the guy.
34:54I mean, he put his hands behind his back.
34:55That's exactly what he looked like.
34:56So I think that that's a strong indication that they have found a link.
35:04And I will tell you that now that they know who the suspect is,
35:10now that they can get DNA from that suspect, they'll do a buckle swab and get DNA from him.
35:15They likely got DNA from shell casings and perhaps from other pieces of evidence.
35:20We don't know what kind of evidence they seized at the homicide scene with the MIT professor.
35:29But anything that they can get any DNA off of, they've got a suspect now,
35:33so they can link it without any doubt that this person was, you know, responsible for these killings.
35:41Well, if they have him on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston,
35:45it should be noted that Commonwealth Avenue is the main thoroughfare that then goes from Boston into Brookline.
35:50where the professor was murdered.
35:53We're going to squeeze in another break here just before this press conference starts.
Be the first to comment