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BROOKLINE, Mass. – Authorities are investigating the death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor after he was found fatally shot inside his Boston-area apartment earlier this week.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, died at a hospital on Tuesday morning after being shot on Monday night inside his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Officers with the Brookline Police Department arrived at the three-story apartment building after receiving reports of a man shot at his home, prosecutors said. Loureiro was pronounced dead Tuesday morning.
Here is what we know about the investigation:
MIT PROFESSOR SHOT DEAD IN BROOKLINE HOME, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE LAUNCH HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION
Shooting rocks Boston suburb
The shooting took place in Brookline, an affluent suburb a few miles outside of Boston. It is being investigated as a homicide, and no suspects have been taken into custody.
The Brookline Police Department and Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office are investigating Loureiro’s death, the Massachusetts State Police said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“This remains an active and ongoing homicide investigation,” Brookline Chief of Police Jennifer Paster said in a social media post. “In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we are limited in the information we can share at this time and ask for the community’s understanding and patience. While we investigate this incident, we will have dedicated patrol cars, officers, and unmarked units in the Gibbs Street neighborhood.”
The Brookline Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Louise Cohen, who is Loureiro’s upstairs neighbor, was lighting a menorah candle on Monday at around 8:30 p.m. when she heard multiple gunshots, The Boston Globe reported.
Upon opening her door, Cohen reportedly witnessed Loureiro lying on his back inside the apartment building’s entrance and called 911, along with another neighbor and Loureiro’s wife.
“I can’t sleep now,” Cohen said, according to the Globe. “This family is so amazing. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill him.”
Questions about Brown University shooting
Loureiro’s death comes as authorities in Providence, Rhode Island – located about 50 miles away – are still searching for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and injured nine others during a class study session on Saturday.
However, Ted Docks, special agent in charge of FBI Boston, told reporters on Tuesday that, “It seems that there’s no connection,” between the two crimes.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Professor makes mark at MIT
Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and was appointed to lead the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center last year, where he aimed to research and expand clean energy technology, according to The Associated Press. The center stands as one of the school’s largest laboratories and had over 250 researchers, staff members and students when Loureiro was selected as its leader, the school’s website stated.
On Tuesday night, a crowd of two dozen mourners gathered to commemorate Loureiro at his home in Brookline, many of whom were crying.
They held candles and hugged one another, less than 24 hours after the MIT professor was found shot at the very same location.
A Brookline High School student told Fox News Digital that he met Loureiro when he was in middle school. Both he and Loureiro’s daughter attended the same karate class, and Loureiro would drive the two together.
The student said he saw the professor nearly every other weekend for a time.
“He was always very welcoming,” the student said. “I used to have trouble being on time back then, and he would always be very gracious and forgiving. He was very inviting.”
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The high school student also said that at one point, he was really interested in politics, and “loved talking to [Loureiro] about it.”
“He was just a great guy, very respectful, very nice,” he added. “They’re just a great family, really, really great people.”
One mother at the vigil told Fox News Digital that her daughter is friends with Loureiro’s, but was too emotional to continue. She described the shooting as “senseless.”
Eurydice Hirsey, another Brookliner, told Fox News Digital that she knew Loureiro through his wife, Ines. The couple shared three children, Hirsey said, who range in age from elementary school to college.
“We take [dance] classes together several times a week,” she said. “I just saw her last night.”
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“She’s always [a] very wonderful, upbeat, smart, funny woman. And then I found out [about the shooting at] 10 o’clock this morning from one of the people in the class.”
“It’s a family that’s feeling such raw horror… terror,” said Hirsey. “And what do you do with something that’s indescribable?”
Hirsey’s husband added that the “only answer to terrorism is a strong civil society.”
“And in the meantime, we face a lot of hate and suffering,” he said.
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On Tuesday, members of the local community and fellow MIT faculty began speaking out to express their shock surrounding Loureiro’s death.
“Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen wrote in a statement to Fox News. “Focused outreach and conversations are taking place within our community to offer care and support for those who knew Prof. Loureiro, and a message will be shared with our wider community.”
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According to Loureiro’s faculty page, the renowned professor studied physics at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal in 2000, and later went on to earn a doctorate in physics at Imperial College London, U.K., in 2005.
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Additionally, he completed postdoctoral work at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from 2005 to 2007, and at the UKAEA Culham Centre for Fusion Energy from 2007 to 2009. Before joining MIT in 2016, Loureiro held a research position at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at IST Lisbon.
In a statement posted to social media, U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John J. Arrigo added, “I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Nuno Loureiro, who led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. We honor his life, his leadership in science, and his enduring contributions.”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Curto contributed to this report.
