It’s unlikely the students at Brown killed were targeted. He opened fire on a room of students at a review session, shooting 11 people. It seems very possible that this was an act of violence out of resentment towards Brown, where he dropped out a graduate program over 20 years ago. He would’ve had most of his classes and spent most of his time in the building where he carried out the shooting.

He appears to have attended the same undergraduate program in Portugal as the MIT professor.

Therefor it seems possible that these shootings were carried out of personal resentment, though only he knew for certain.