Brown University mass shooting and MIT assassination may be connected, police confirm

The Brown University mass shooting which killed two students may be connected to the assassination of an MIT professor two days later, police have said.

An unidentified gunman opened fire on the Brown campus in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, and investigators failed to track the attacker down. 

Two days later, an unknown assailant fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Nuno Loureiro inside his Boston home around 50 miles away. 

FBI agent Ted Docks said Tuesday ‘there seems to be no connection’ between the two shootings, but investigators told WPRI Thursday that there may be a link. 

The outlet did not give further information about the connection, but said it marks ‘a new break in the case’ which has baffled investigators for days. 

Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, of Virginia, and Ella Cook, of Alabama, were fatally gunned down during the mass shooting at Brown on Saturday. 

They were in a study session held at the Ivy League’s School of Engineering Barus and Holley Building when a gunman burst in shortly after 4pm and opened fire. 

The gunman fired 40 rounds, killing the two students and wounding 12 more. 

FBI agents have released several photographs and videos of two ‘persons of interest’, but they are yet to name a suspect in the tragedy. 

A different ‘person of interest’ was detained at the Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry the day after the shooting, but they were later released without charge. 

Two days after the Brown shooting, at around 8.30pm Monday evening, married father-of-three Loureiro was shot dead in his home in Brookline, Boston. 

Loureiro’s neighbor and friend, Louise Cohen, said she discovered his body after hearing shots disturb the peace of their beautiful area on Gibbs Street. 

Cohen said she was lighting a menorah candle when she heard gunshots fired. She rushed to the hallway of their building and found Loureiro lying on his back. 

The professor’s heartbroken wife was also in the entry along with another neighbor, and they scrambled to dial 911. Loureiro was taken to hospital but died the next day.

Loureiro’s neighbors remembered him as a kind-hearted, ‘wonderful man’, while students flocked to the candle-lit vigil in his memory.

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Is Brown University Protecting a Suspect in the Campus Shooting?

The Brown University shooting left two students dead and at least eight wounded. Unfortunately, what has unfolded since the shooting looks less like a serious, focused manhunt and more like an institutional panic about narrative control.

A gunman opened fire in the engineering building Saturday, killing two and wounding at least eight as students prepared for finals. Authorities still have no named suspect and have released only grainy images of a “person of interest.”

The FBI has gotten involved, releasing enhanced video of the “person of interest” and offering up to $50,000 for information, while agents go door to door, seeking camera footage. Despite repeated briefings, the lack of solid leads is obvious, and it is fueling suspicion that officials may be shielding a potential suspect.

Officials from Brown and the city have held press conferences but have offered evasive answers that frustrate the public rather than reassure it. For example, as PJ Media previously reported, police repeatedly refused to address reports that the shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar.” That alone has raised doubts about the investigation’s transparency and competence.

Then there is Brown University’s behavior, which has taken this story from tragic to deeply suspicious. Internet sleuths quickly noticed that Brown was quietly pulling down webpages connected to student assistant Mustapha Kharbouch, leaving many to wonder if there’s a connection between their actions and the investigation.

Archived versions of those pages described Kharbouch as a queer Palestinian activist, a third-generation Palestinian refugee born and raised in Lebanon, a “Free Palestine” and LGBTQ activist with preferred pronouns, whom the university prominently celebrated on its website.

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Bondi Beach Shows Why Self-Defense Is a Vital Right

At Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a father-son team of ISIS-inspired terrorists murdered attendees at a celebration of the first day of Hanukkah. One of the attackers was disarmed by a heroic civilian who was shot in the process, while others lost their lives trying to help.

Contrasting Responses to Threats

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the shooting with promises to further tighten gun laws in the already restrictive country—a measure more likely to disarm potential victims than to inconvenience those planning a homicidal attack. In the U.S., by contrast, Jews stepped up security by themselves and alongside police. At the request of my wife’s rabbi, I recruited a friend who served as a Force Recon Marine. We strapped on armor and pistols to patrol the crowd at the menorah lighting in Sedona, Arizona. Members of the congregation carried concealed weapons of their own.

Nothing happened, but we were there to deter problems and respond if necessary. There’s a big difference between doubling down on failed state policies and taking responsibility for your own safety.

According to Prime Minister Albanese’s office, after the attack, “leaders agreed that strong, decisive and focused action was needed on gun law reform as an immediate action” and promised “to strengthen gun laws” with further restrictions. Of course, that’s what Australia did in 1996 after the Port Arthur mass shooting. The government banned a variety of firearms, with compensation for their surrender. Compliance was limited and the effort spawned a significant black market for guns.

But Australia’s millions of guns didn’t kill 15 people at Bondi Beach. Two men with known Islamist ties who traveled last month to the Philippines for training at terrorist summer camp committed the murders. They chose guns as their tools, but they could just as easily have used explosives, vehicles, incendiaries, or something else to cause mayhem.

“The issue is not gun laws. It’s hatred of Jews,” Rabbi Daniel Greyber of Durham, North Carolina commented after the Bondi Beach attack.

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Rhode Island Democrat AG SNAPS at Reporter When Asked Why Pro-Palestine Activist’s Brown University Profiles Were Scrubbed — Brown University Releases Statement

As the investigation into a shocking mass shooting at Brown University drags into its fourth day with no suspect in custody, Rhode Island’s Democrat Attorney General Peter Neronha snapped at a reporter after being confronted with mounting questions, including why Brown University scrubbed its website of a pro-Palestine activist’s profile.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, one of the victims of the attack was 19-year-old Brown University sophomore Ella Cooke, a devout Christian from Alabama and the Vice President of Brown’s Republican Club.

Fox News host Jesse Watters raised disturbing questions that many Americans are now asking:

“The family of Ella Cooke, the Alabama young woman who was a sophomore, has been told that she was the target of what happened at Brown. I have no idea whether that’s true. But if police are telling students they are safe and don’t need to shelter in place — while they don’t have a suspect in custody — that suggests this was a targeted attack.”

The second Brown University shooting victim has been identified as 18-year-old Uzbekistan immigrant Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.

Watters also noted reports that the shooter may have screamed “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire, though police have refused to confirm the details.

“A guy walks into an Ivy League building, fires off 40 rounds, murders two people, walks out — and three days later, they have no idea who he is. They won’t even say if it was a man or a woman. Police first claimed they had a white Army veteran detained… then admitted, ‘Oops, wrong guy.’”

As police stonewalled the public, internet sleuths noticed something else: Brown University wiped its website of profiles linked to a self-described “Free Palestine” and LGBTQ activist.

(NOTE: The Gateway Pundit is not alleging or asserting that the individual is the shooter at Brown University. No individual mentioned in this report has been charged in connection with the crime unless explicitly stated by law enforcement. As always, all individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.)

When reporters asked Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha about the sudden removal of the profiles, he became visibly defensive.

Neronha insisted that if the activist’s name were relevant, law enforcement would be “out looking for that person,” and warned the public against “reading into things.”

He concluded by demanding that the public focus instead on helping police identify the shooter, despite the fact that authorities have released little actionable information.

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Pundits Blame Sydney Slaughter on Protest Slogan

Australian officials are still learning about the individuals who carried out the Bondi Beach attack, killing more than a dozen Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney. But the pundits, with their magnifying glasses and meerschaum pipes, have cracked the case. The culprit is: pro-Palestine protesters.

“When people chant ‘intifada revolution,’ they are revealing something important about their goals and methods,” wrote noted Iraq War enthusiast David Frum (Atlantic12/14/25). “Yet in many Western countries, public authorities have been reluctant—or unwilling—to hear the message.” Frum went on:

It is helpful to possess a lexicon of what is typically intended by these vocabularies. Armed struggle means shooting people or blowing them up with bombs. By any means necessary means targeting the most defenseless: children, the elderly, other civilians. Globalize the intifada means shooting or bombing people in Sydney, London, Paris, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York City, as well as in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. From the river to the sea means the annihilation of a sovereign democratic state and the mass murder, expulsion and enslavement of much of its population.

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Bondi Beach hero helped disarm terrorist before police mistakenly shot him: report

A man who rushed in to help disarm one of the terrorists who fired at a crowd celebrating Hanukkah in Australia’s famous Bondi Beach was mistakenly shot by police and tackled by bystanders, according to a new report.

The heroic civilian, who was only described as a Middle Eastern refugee living with his Australian wife and kids, was in Bondi Beach when Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, allegedly opened fire at a crowd of Jewish revelers.

At least 15 people were killed in the attack and dozens others injured.

Harrowing video shows the moment the good Samaritan runs up the bridge where the gunmen were firing from after one of them was hit by police returning fire, the Daily Mail reported.

The man quickly sneaks up on the downed shooter and begins kicking his rifle out of reach before the gunman can grab it.

The quick-thinking civilian then begins to raise his hands and back away from the scene, but gunfire continues to ring out as he shouts, “Don’t shoot.”

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Police Release New Images and Video of ‘Person of Interest’ in Deadly Brown University Shooting

The FBI released new images of the ‘person of interest’ in the deadly Brown University shooting.

A total of two people were killed and nine were injured in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University.

Law enforcement took a ‘person of interest’ into custody overnight on Saturday but released him late Sunday.

A manhunt is underway for the ‘armed and dangerous’ Brown University shooter.

The FBI released three new videos of a person of interest and offered a $50,000 reward leading to the ID and arrest of the individual.

“The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the individual,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.

“Anyone with information please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or the Providence Police Department at 401-272-3121,” Patel said.

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Providence Police Chief Evades Questions, Refuses to Say What Brown Shooter Shouted Before Opening Fire as Reports Indicate He Yelled “Allahu Akbar”

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez Jr., on Monday, evaded questions on the Brown University shooter and declined to say what witnesses claim the shooter yelled before opening fire at the university.

If the shooter were a White male, we would likely know everything about him.

Rhode Island Officials held a press conference on Monday to provide updates on the Saturday shooting and ongoing investigation as the manhunt for the shooter remains underway.

Witnesses say the shooter “yelled something” before killing two students and wounding nine more, and early reports suggest the shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire.

But Perez wouldn’t tell reporters what he said, claiming, “That’s part of the investigation.”

A reporter even pleaded with Perez to tell reporters what the shooter said to help the public identify him, reasoning that “it’s possible a friend or family member might recognize if the person said something that was significant.”

However, Perez claimed that he could not say, suggesting the case may be in jeopardy if he were to share this evidence.

Later, when another reporter pressed Perez, he gave similar answers, dodging the question again. After reporters began to shout questions about apparent cell phone videos from the scene, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley stepped in to declare a wrap on the presser.

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Australia Police Refuse to Comment on Motive of Hanukkah Terror Attack, Father and Son Identified as Suspects

Australian police said that they will not be commenting yet on the motive behind the terror attack allegedly committed by a father and son duo.

According to New South Wales Police, the death toll of the terrorist attack on a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday has risen to 16. A total of 42 people were hospitalised or received care elsewhere, two of whom have since died. Included among the dead are a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Five people remain in critical condition, and four police officers are in serious condition after sustaining gunshot wounds.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon disclosed that the two suspected shooters were a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who is said to be in police custody after being critically injured.  The father was killed at the scene.

Police have so far refused to disclose any information about their ethnicity or nationality. Lanyon also said that police will not be disclosing any information as to the motive for the attack for now.

“We’re still very early in the investigation, we’re happy to provide information,” Lanyon said. “I want to give our investigators the opportunity to investigate thoroughly without speculation. We heard a lot information was coming forward. I want to make sure it’s accurate… our investigation will be thorough.”

The police chief did disclose that the 50-year-old man had a license for a firearm for approximately 10 years despite Australia’s strict gun control laws. Lanyon also said that police were aware of the 24-year-old suspected shooter, but did not have any indication that he was planning an attack.

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Police Release Person of Interest After Questioning in Brown University Shooting

Law enforcement will be releasing the person of interest in the Brown University shooting.

The manhunt for the Brown University shooter is still underway.

Two people are dead and nine are injured after a gunman opened fire at Brown University on Saturday.

Overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning, police took Benjamin Erickson into custody as a person of interest to question him.

Erickson, a Wisconsin native, was not enrolled as a student at Brown.

Later Sunday, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced law enforcement would be releasing Erickson from custody.

Officials do not have enough evidence to prosecute Erickson.

Police Chief Oscar Perez said the FBI “followed through with” a tip and located a person of interest.

Law enforcement looked into Erickson’s alleged history of mental health issues.

“We will be releasing the person of interest who had been detained earlier today,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.

“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community. And we want to reiterate what we said earlier, which remains true… we have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community,” he added.

“And so the status of safety in our community remains unchanged. And we believe that you remain safe in our community,” he said.

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