MA - MIT physicist Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, Fatally Shot at Home, Dec 15 2025, Brookline MA

[LadyL]

local news says he was a father - i haven’t read a lot more about his personal life in msm so far

MIT professor fatally shot on Gibbs Street - Brookline.News

Police initially responded to shots fired on Gibbs Street between 8 and 9 p.m. A man later identified as Nuno Loureiro was taken to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and died overnight.

brookline.news

Loureiro was a parent in the Public Schools of Brookline, according to superintendent Bella Wong, who sent an email to families in the district on Tuesday afternoon.

about halfway through the video in the article, it shows a man turning the corner and walking down the street
is that the suspect or a cop?

 

[dotr]

Verifying Device

December 18 2025 rbbm
''THE killing of a famous MIT professor who was shot multiple times at his apartment building could be a hit job by the Iranians, it is feared.''

"Israeli officials are now investigating intelligence from recent days that suggests an Iranian connection to the murder of Prof. Nuno Loureiro.

This is an assessment that has not yet been verified and is not supported at this stage by official findings from the investigative authorities in the US.

Suspicions were also raised because of Loureiro’s pro-Israel stance and nuclear-adjacent fusion expertise amid tensions with Iran.''

 

[Inthedetails]

The thing about “killing to suppress research” is that there is little one scientist can discover that other scientists wouldn’t be able to duplicate. Unlike what we see in fiction with “lost formulas”, good researchers document their work meticulously and it would be easy to tell where they stopped.

If the attack was related to his work, I’d look at grad students or colleagues who felt aggrieved (right or wrongly) that he’d not given them credit.

Just this summer, 2025, someone shot at the CDC in Georgia, based on hatred for science and scientists in the medical field. Yes, it is a possibility that this murder was based on the victim's work, especially in this current era of mocking, undermining, and defunding scientists in the USA.

We don't know if that happened in this case, but it's not an absurd theory in these absurd times.

We will eventually find out what the motive was. It could be random violence, personal, or some other reason.

jmopinion

 

[na19]

The daughter witnessing the shooting is absolutely horrific and tragic. I wonder if she was able to get a look at the suspect? Odd this has not been in the news much, and not much information is out there including any CCTV footage.

 

[Inthedetails]

The daughter witnessing the shooting is absolutely horrific and tragic. I wonder if she was able to get a look at the suspect? Odd this has not been in the news much, and not much information is out there including any CCTV footage.

I am hoping the news is so quiet is because LE doesn't need public input, that they have good leads.

Wishful thinking, perhaps? idk

jmo

 

[Snoopster]

Louise Cohen, who lived in the same building as Loureiro, told The Herald that she heard shots go off Monday and called the police.

In a several posts, she described the experience of hearing the shots — “the noise was so loud that my floor and sofa shook” — then a child crying, and coming out of her apartment only to see that Loureiro was barely conscious on the floor of the foyer in their building. She dialed 911 and Brookline Police arrived within a few minutes, she said.

“There’s a would-be murderer who seems to have dashed through the heavy front door and down the steps,” Cohen wrote.

MIT nuclear science professor shot, killed in Brookline home

Why would someone target him?
I wonder if he was just leaving his building or had just arrived back. Did someone follow him? Or was someone waiting for him?

 

[kuromiiiilove]

I am hoping the news is so quiet is because LE doesn't need public input, that they have good leads.

Wishful thinking, perhaps? idk

jmo

Unfortunately, I am not as hopeful…

Shooting of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro has police still searching for a suspect

Police intensified their search for a suspect in the fatal shooting of a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

www.latimes.com

“ Police continue searching for a suspect with no leads as of Wednesday.”

Now of course, this may just mean that no leads have been announced to the public. I certainly hope that is the case.

 

[kuromiiiilove]

MIT nuclear science professor shot, killed in Brookline home

Why would someone target him?
I wonder if he was just leaving his building or had just arrived back. Did someone follow him? Or was someone waiting for him?

I see many people discussing his work as a motive to murder, but I agree with what someone said upthread - killing a single scientist does not delete their knowledge or the ability to replicate their work from the world. It would be ineffective unless every major physicist were being targeted.

I tend to think, as sad as it is, that it’s for one of the ‘normal’ reasons: sex, money, jealousy, revenge, arguments, etc.

 

[Lebowski]

At first I thought it must be related to his research, which could lead to major breakthroughs in replacing fossil fuel energy. But the fact that he was murdered at his home does make it seem more personal. Also odd that the location is not that far from the Brown U shooting, but investigators have said they don’t believe there is a connection.

respectfully, the idea of scientists being killed because their research is a threat to powerful interests or it has revealed some dangerous secret seems more like movie stuff than a thing that happens in the real world.

it is indeed true that fusion is a threat to fossil fuels, but i can think of several reasons it would be pointless to kill a fusion scientist in the hope of stopping it. 1) the bigger and more immediate threats to fossil fuels are solar power, batteries, and electric vehicle technology (and afaik no one is being assassinated over those). 2) the progress in fusion is notoriously slow. it's a common joke that "practical fusion power is 50 years away ... and always will be". they've passed some important milestones, but still have a long way to go. 3) it's a big field with a lot of people, and progress isn't going to depend too much on any one researcher. movies and pop science media give people the impression that science advances through a series "breakthroughs" by singular "geniuses". but usually it's a lot of incremental, hard work, and if you remove any one person, their colleagues would pick up the slack and continue their work and get the same results they would without the person. ... at least if that person's research was legitimately promising.

if a scientist gets killed for anything work related, i tend to think it's more likely a grad student or colleague who felt aggrieved over down-to-earth stuff, like money, personal feud, department politics, abusive behavior (whether real or perceived). ... or maybe some ideological idiot who hates science for whatever reason.

and it could just as well be something not work related.

 

[na19]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2001720517745902056

 

[Inthedetails]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2001720517745902056

Welp, here we are.

Of course, investigating a possibility doesn't mean there actually is a connection. But we're not nuts for wondering if there is.

jmop

 

[Inthedetails]

If you're not following the Brown University thread, there is lots of info happening now related to this MIT murder case.

 

[kuromiiiilove]

Brown Shooting: Authorities Search for a Person With Possible Connection to MIT Killing

Investigators are also examining the possibility that the case is connected to the killing of an M.I.T. professor in his home in Massachusetts.

www.nytimes.com

“
Investigators are searching for the individual and a car that the person is believed to have rented, one official said. The authorities have not publicly identified a suspect in either case.
The authorities believe the rented vehicle is the same make and model of a car identified in connection with the shooting of the M.I.T. professor in Brookline, Mass., the official said.”