How a Tipster on Reddit Helped Police Identify the Brown University Shooting Suspect
Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Information from a tipster who met another man on the side of the road outside Brown University was the key to the police identifying the suspect they believe killed two students at the school and two days later shot a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Known only as “John” in a Providence police affidavit, the source is being hailed by investigators as the key person who provided law enforcement with the information needed to determine who shot Brown, and the MIT professor who was shot at his home in Brookline, Mass., on Monday.
Ever since the shooter fired more than 40 rounds into the Brown Engineering Building, anxiety and frustration have gripped the community of Providence, RI, as police appear to be no closer to identifying the man.
Break in the case
But on the sixth day of the investigation, the case broke out, and the police announced on Thursday that they found the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Tipster, John, was the reason why.
The suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University last weekend has died from a self-inflicted wound. Authorities found the man’s body in a rented storage facility in New Hampshire and later revealed that he was also suspected of murdering a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
“He cracked this case,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said of the tip that led to the arrest of the suspected gunman about 24 hours later.
“If you rub it, it cracks,” he said.
According to the police, John had several meetings with Claudio Neves Valente, 48, before Saturday’s attack.
As police posted photos of the person of interest – now identified as Neves Valente – John began posting on social networking site Reddit that he knew the person and suggested that police should be on the lookout for a “possible rental” gray Nissan.
Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, and John said he did. A police affidavit says they learned of the tip on Dec. 16, three days after the shooting and a day after the tip line was disclosed.
Vehicle information key
Until then, the police affidavit says officers had not made contact with the vehicle and the potential shooter.
That information led to additional video of a Nissan Sentra with Florida plates and enabled Providence police to access a network of more than 70 street cameras operated throughout the city by surveillance company Flock Safety.
The affidavit says John provided investigators with additional important information: he met Neves Valente in the bathroom of the engineering building a few hours before the attack, where John noted that the suspect’s clothing was “inappropriate and inappropriate for the weather.”
John also bumped into Neves Valente outside, just outside the building, when John watched Neves Valente “suddenly” turn from the Nissan when he saw John. What followed then was a “cat and mouse game,” according to John’s testimony – where the two would meet and Neves Valente would run away.
‘Why are you walking around the block?’
At one point, John says he yelled, “Your car is back, why are you going around the block?”
“The suspect replied, ‘I don’t know anyone,’ and then asked repeatedly, ‘Why are you torturing me?'” according to the affidavit.
John told the police that he finally saw Neves Valente approaching the Nissan sedan again and decided to leave.
“Respectfully, I’ve said all I have to say on this matter to the right people,” John wrote on Reddit Wednesday night.
As of Thursday, it was not known whether John would receive the $50,000 reward the FBI had offered for information about Brown’s shooting.
Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said it was possible when asked by reporters.
“It would be reasonable to think that, of course, that person would be entitled to that,” he said.
