A homeless hero proved instrumental in helping track down the suspect in the Brown University shooting, who is also believed to have killed an MIT professor, after posting a tip on Reddit.
The suspect, identified as Claudio Neves Valente, was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on Thursday, Leah B. Foley, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, told reporters. The 48-year-old Portuguese national died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was found with a pair of firearms matching those used in the attack at Brown University, Foley said.
“He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said when discussing the tipster.
It was a Reddit user, referred to in documents as “John,” who said that they saw the car driven by Neves Valente getting into a grey Nissan sedan with a Florida license plate, steps away from the Barus and Holley building, where the Brown shooting took place.
“I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” the person posted on Tuesday. Officials later confirmed that the post was “consistent with and corroborated by” other surveillance footage.
‘John’ spotted the suspected shooter between 1:45 pm and 2 pm on December 12, just two hours before Neves Valente would open fire at the university.
A source told Fox News on Thursday that he was a homeless man who slept in the Barus and Holley building.
The pair crossed paths in a campus restroom, with ‘John’ noting that Neves Valente was wearing clothes that were unsuitable for the weather.
According to an arrest affidavit, they made eye contact shortly before the suspected shooter left the restroom.
‘John’ decided to follow the mysterious man, suspicious of his intentions because of his strange attire.
The redditor described the pursuit as a “game of cat and mouse” and revealed that he even confronted Neves Valente, police say.
“Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?” ‘John’ asked.
“Why are you harassing me?” Neves Valente responded before storming away. The 48-year-old is believed to have carried out the shooting shortly after.
When police asked John about the vehicle that the stranger had used, they showed him a photograph of Neves Valente’s car.
“That might be it,” John said, according to the affidavit. Cops said that was the breakthrough they needed to catch the killer.
On Thursday, the Reddit user whose post tipped off police posted a follow-up message, writing, “This evening I spoke to Providence Police, the Rhode Island State Police and I imagine the FBI were listening in another room...I have said all I have to say on the matter to the right people.”
The FBI has not said whether the Reddit tipster will be given the $50,000 reward offered by the bureau for information about the shooter. In a statement provided to CBS News on Friday, a spokesperson said the FBI "will not comment on whether reward money has been paid and to whom."
Meanwhile, new evidence shared by Brown University has revealed that Neves Valente had attended the Ivy League school during the fall of 2000, before taking a leave of absence in 2001. He later dropped out entirely in 2003.
Foley confirmed that Neves Valente was also a former classmate of murdered MIT physics professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, with the pair attending an academic course in Portugal from 1995 until 2000.
Neves Valente allegedly killed Loureiro at his home in Brookline, New Hampshire, three days after the Brown shooting, prosecutors say.
However, his reason for targeting his former classmate and his alma mater remains unknown.
Foley said authorities had located Neves Valente after obtaining video footage of his car, which they quickly traced to a dealership.
Upon obtaining the rental agreement for the vehicle, police were finally provided with Neves Valente’s name. That allowed them to track him to New Hampshire, where authorities were investigating the murder of leading nuclear fusion scientist Loureiro.
“There was security footage that captured him within a half mile of the professor’s residence in Brookline,” Foley told reporters. “And there is video footage of him entering an apartment building in the location of the professor’s apartment.
“He was seen about an hour later entering the storage unit, wearing the same clothes that he had been seen wearing right after the murder.”
The internet has been awash with conspiracy theories about the killing, with sources telling The Jerusalem Post that Israeli officials are questioning whether Iranian agents played a role in his death.
Loureiro was one of the U.S’s leading nuclear scientists and had publicly spoken in support of Israel. However, The Jerusalem Post admitted that U.S. and Israeli authorities confirmed that no evidence has been found to substantiate the theory yet.
The shooting has led Donald Trump to axe the green card lottery program that Neves Valente used to re-enter the U.S in 2017.
The program offers 50,000 green cards per year and allows people from countries underrepresented in the US to obtain visas.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on X. “In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
Neves Valentes’ alma mater is currently mourning two of its students, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, whom he murdered after he opened fire on December 12.
Umurzokov, 18, was an aspiring neurosurgeon before being shot, whom his family described as their “biggest role model” in a GoFundMe campaign.
Cook, 19, had served as the vice president of the Brown University College Republicans before being killed by Neves Valente.
