First came the news that MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, a rising star in physics and an immigrant from Portugal, was shot and killed in his apartment building in the Boston metro area.
Then came the news that the suspected gunman responsible for the Boston shooting, as well as the mass shooting at Brown University days earlier, was also from Portugal.
The shooter, Cláudio Valente, was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility.
The developing story is one that people in Portugal are following closely.
To understand the developments, The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler spoke with Sofia Neves, a reporter at the Portuguese daily newspaper PÚBLICO, who joined from Porto, Portugal.
Carolyn Beeler: To start Sofia, what has been the reaction in Portugal this week to these events?
Sofia Neves: We are all very, very shocked about what happened. Ever since we got the news that the professor was killed, we began covering this story. And we were more shocked even when we learned about the identity of the suspect who was responsible for his killing and also for the attack at Brown University.
Beeler: How is this professor, Nuno Loureiro, being remembered this week there in Portugal?
Neves: He’s being remembered as a brilliant scientist who still had a lot of work to give. He was currently at the center of a potential revolution in nuclear fusion. He’s been remembered not only for his work but also for who he was as a person, how he treated his colleagues and those who worked under him. His students, everyone who’s been in contact with him, remember a kind person, and he had a very natural ease with which he could establish collaborations and bridges with everyone around him. That’s what got him so far because he began working at a very respected institution in Portugal. But when he was invited to MIT, a very important institution in America, he quickly rose to the top and became director. So, everyone is remembering him as a great person, a brilliant scientist and a very premature loss for Portugal and also for the scientific community.
Beeler: What has the conversation been like or the questions raised now that it is clear that the alleged shooter was also Portuguese?
Neves: Yeah, there has been a lot of curiosity about the relation between the two. These two men, if they knew each other, if they crossed paths when they were studying, and if they had crossed paths ever since because they were both living in the United States. We are still discovering a lot details, so there are a lot questions that are being asked, but mainly about the relationship between these two people, these two men.
Beeler: We know that these two men overlapped at university in Portugal for a time. Is there any more information about whether or not they might have known each other?
Neves: What is confirmed is that Valente and Loureiro attended the same academic program at the university here in Portugal, in Lisbon. It was between 1995 and 2000, but we don’t even know if they were acquaintances, if they were friends, if they even spoke to each other, and if they did, if they had contact when they were both living in the United States. Our police have spoken about this, but they did not reveal any possible connections between Loureiro and Valente. Also, the institute that they both went to also talked about this, but they didn’t give any public information about the suspect. They only talked about the good work that Nuno Loureiro did, all his life.
Beeler: Stories of gun violence are, unfortunately, not uncommon in the US. I imagine they are less common there in Portugal. I’m curious to hear how Portuguese folks are reacting to these shootings with that in mind.
Neves: Well, yeah, gun violence in Portugal is very much less prevalent than in other countries, and in the US in particular. It has shown a recent increase in the last few years. We have some cases, but they are isolated cases. When cases like this happen, they are usually related to disagreements between friends or family. We have no cases of strangers opening fire in public places. And also our laws regarding guns are a little bit strict. So, we do not have a lot of cases like they do in the US, like the one we saw at Brown University. But yes, we are obviously shocked that this happened with a Portuguese citizen.
Beeler: What else are people talking about there as this all unfolds?
Neves: Portuguese people are very interested in what happened in this case, what led the suspect to attack, not only the Brown University students, but also what led him to drive to Nuno Loureiro’s house and kill him. They are curious about the relationship between the two, if they were friends, if they still talked, if they maintained any contact at all, as we don’t know what caused the killings. They’re very curious to know what happened.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
