A homeless individual, known only as 'John', played a pivotal role in leading authorities to the suspect in the Brown University mass shooting and the murder of an MIT professor, according to a police affidavit. His series of eerie encounters with the gunman and a subsequent online tip provided the crucial breakthrough in the case.
A Series of Chilling Encounters
The affidavit reveals that John first encountered the gunman, Claudio Neves Valente, in the bathroom of an engineering building at Brown University just hours before the deadly attack occurred. John noted that Valente's clothing seemed "inappropriate and inadequate for the weather."
Later, John crossed paths with Valente again outside, mere blocks from the building. According to his testimony, Valente "suddenly" turned around from a Nissan car upon seeing him. What followed was described as a tense "game of cat and mouse," where the two men would encounter each other and Valente would repeatedly run away.
At one point, John reportedly yelled, "Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?" Valente responded, "I don't know you from nobody," and repeatedly asked John why he was harassing him. John eventually decided to walk away after seeing Valente approach the Nissan sedan once more.
The Crucial Reddit Tip That Cracked the Case
After the shooting on Saturday, 13th December, police released images of a person of interest. John, browsing the social media forum Reddit, recognised the individual and began posting. He theorised that police should investigate a "possibly a rental" grey Nissan.
Urged by other Reddit users to contact the FBI, John said he did so. Police received the tip on 16th December, three days after the shooting and a day after a dedicated tip line was established. Up until that moment, investigators had not connected a vehicle to the possible shooter.
This single detail was transformative. It led police to obtain more video footage of a Nissan Sentra sedan with Florida plates and enabled Providence officers to tap into a network of over 70 street cameras operated by surveillance company Flock Safety. This evidence trail was instrumental in identifying Valente as the perpetrator.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha credited John, stating, "He blew this case right open. When you crack it, you crack it." John later posted on Reddit, "Respectfully, I have said all I have to say on the matter to the right people."
The Shooter's Background and Tragic Outcome
The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday evening. Investigators believe he acted alone in both attacks.
He is suspected of fatally shooting two students and wounding nine others in a Brown University lecture hall on Saturday. Two days later, he allegedly killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, nearly 50 miles from Providence.
Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed Valente was enrolled as a graduate physics student from autumn 2000 to spring 2001 but had no current affiliation with the university. Both Valente and Professor Loureiro, who was also Portuguese, had attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.
Valente studied at Brown on a student visa and eventually obtained legal permanent residence status in the US in September 2017. His last known residence was in Miami. Following the identification of the suspect, then-President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program that had allowed Valente to remain in the United States.
