Washington announced on Friday the immediate "suspension" of the issuance of visas by lottery, a popular program which had benefited the man - of Portuguese nationality - suspected of having killed two students at the American university Brown and a professor at MIT.

"Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the perpetrator of the Brown University shooting, entered the United States in 2017 through the Diversity Visa (DV1) lottery program and obtained a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed to enter our country," the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security wrote on X.

Kristi Noem ordered Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) "to suspend the DV1 program to prevent more Americans from becoming victims of this disastrous program."

The visa lottery system was established in 1990 and allows the issuance of resident cards in the United States to some 50,000 people each year, provided they meet the required eligibility criteria, including having a high school diploma or work experience.

An exam and an interview are required before a visa can be issued. Every year, tens of millions of people try their luck in this unusual lottery.

The 48-year-old suspect in the Brown University shootings, a Miami resident, was found dead, Providence (Rhode Island) police announced Thursday evening.

The Portuguese man "took his own life," the city's police chief, Oscar Perez, stated at a press conference. His body was found in a storage container in New Hampshire along with two firearms. He appears to have acted alone.

The gunman first opened fire on Saturday in Brown's engineering and physics building. Two students, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, were killed and nine others were wounded.

He is also suspected of having killed a professor at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday evening, some 70 kilometers away.

Nuno Loureiro, a professor at MIT since 2016, taught nuclear science and engineering. He was found shot Monday night at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Aged 47, he was pronounced dead at the hospital the following day.

- Hunt -

No reason has yet been given to explain these events, which occurred at two of the country's most prestigious universities.

Before Claudio Neves Valente was identified and then found dead, the investigations seemed to be stalling, with investigators making repeated appeals to the public to identify two people filmed in the streets of Providence.

The first man, a stocky fellow dressed in dark colors, wearing a mask and a beanie, was considered the suspect. The other man may have been in contact with him, according to law enforcement.

The case was then reopened thanks to a lead of financial data and CCTV images collected from both crime scenes.

A reward of $50,000 had also been promised for any information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator, considered "armed and dangerous".

The suspect was "sophisticated in his methods of covering his tracks," said federal prosecutor Leah Foley. He changed his vehicle's license plates and used a phone that investigators struggled to locate.

- Gun violence -

The massacre fuels the recurring debate in the United States on gun ownership, guaranteed by the Constitution and to which many Americans remain very attached.

In 2024, more than 16,000 people, not counting suicides, were killed by firearms in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

"Nothing can ever truly repair the lives shattered last weekend by gun violence," said the president of Brown University. "But now our community can move forward and begin a process of repair, recovery, and healing."

In 2007, a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before committing suicide, the deadliest school shooting in the country's history.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump, who opposes gun control, emphasized the issue of video surveillance on his Social Truth network.

"Why did Brown University have so few security cameras? There is no excuse. In the modern age, it can't get any worse!!!" he said.