Authorities Identify New Person of Interest in Brown University Shooting, Probe Potential Links to MIT Murder By Ben Brachfeld and Chris Spargo

Authorities have identified a person of interest in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University, and are probing potential links to another unsolved shooting of a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A person of interest has not been publicly identified but is on the radar of law enforcement. A source with knowledge of the investigation told PEOPLE that authorities are close to declaring a person of interest as a suspect.

The FBI had been offering a $50,000 reward for information relating to the individual who killed two people and injured nine others at the Ivy League school in Providence, R.I. on Saturday, Dec. 13.

A man initially identified as a person of interest was taken in for questioning Sunday after FBI agents descended upon his hotel in Coventry, a town located approximately 20 miles south of Providence, PEOPLE previously reported.

He was released just a few hours later after authorities determined there was “no basis to consider him a person of interest,” Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said at the time.

Meanwhile, authorities are now probing any possible links between the Brown shooting and another incident two days later, when MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot and killed at his home in Brookline, Mass., about 50 miles away from Providence, said the law enforcement source.

Another source familiar with the investigation said authorities have the name of a person of interest, and that they are searching for a vehicle in the Boston area, though it’s not clear if the vehicle belongs to the same person. Investigators believe the same vehicle may have been seen in both the vicinity of the Brown and MIT shootings.

No suspects have been identified publicly in Loureiro’s murder.

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The Brown attacker managed not only to escape the scene after opening fire in a hallway at the school’s Barus & Holley building, but also managed to evade the school’s security cameras. Authorities have released surveillance footage showing the person’s movements from homes in Providence’s College Hill neighborhood, but have thus far not managed to track them.

Two Brown students, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, were killed in the gunfire. All nine of the wounded students have either been released from the hospital or are in stable condition, the law enforcement source said.

The university cancelled final exams and sent students home early for winter break.