This was published 3 months ago
How an anonymous tipster cracked the US university shooting case
Updated ,first published
Providence: Information from a tipster who had had a strange encounter with another man on a footpath outside Brown University in Rhode Island was key to police identifying the suspect they believe killed two students at the Ivy League school and then two days later gunned down a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
Known only as “John” in a Providence police affidavit, the source is being hailed by investigators as the key figure who gave law enforcement the details needed to determine who was behind the Brown shooting last Saturday, as well as the killing of MIT’s Nuno Loureiro, who was shot at his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts on Monday, about 80 kilometres north of Brown’s campus.
Ever since a shooter unloaded more than 40 rounds inside a Brown engineering building, anxiety and frustration have plagued the Providence, Rhode Island, community as police appeared no closer to identifying the person.
Yet on the sixth day of the investigation, the case gathered steam, ending with police announcing late on Thursday (Friday AEDT) that they had found the suspected gunman dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a rented self-storage facility in New Hampshire.
The tipster, John, was the reason why.
“He blew this case right open,” said Rhode Island Attorney-General Peter Neronha of the information provided by the individual that resulted in finding the suspect nearly 24 hours later.
“When you crack it, you crack it,” he said.
According to police, John had had several encounters with 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente before Saturday’s attack. As police posted images of a person of interest – now identified as Valente – John began posting on the social media forum Reddit that he recognised the person and theorised that police should look into “possibly a rental” grey Nissan. Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, and John said he did. The police affidavit said they learned about the tip on December 16, three days after the shooting and a day after the tip line was created.
Up until that point, the police affidavit says officials had not connected a vehicle to the possible shooter.
That detail led them to get more video of a Nissan Sentra sedan with Florida plates and enabled Providence police officers to tap into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated around the city by surveillance company Flock Safety.
The next day, police publicised a new video where Valente appeared to run away from another man. The Reddit commenter didn’t respond to questions from The Associated Press earlier in the week but he returned to the forum later that Wednesday night to say that he had just been interviewed by Providence and state police investigators.
The affidavit says John gave investigators additional critical details: he encountered Valente in the toilet of the engineering building just hours before the attack, where John noted the suspect’s clothing was “inappropriate and inadequate for the weather”.
John also bumped into Valente outside, mere blocks from the building, where John watched Valente “suddenly” turn around from the Nissan when he saw John. What ensued was then a “game of cat and mouse”, according to John’s testimony – where the two would encounter each other and Valente would run away.
At one point, John says he yelled out, “Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?”
“The suspect responded, ‘I don’t know you from nobody,’ then the suspect repeatedly asked, ‘Why are you harassing me?’ ” according to the affidavit.
John told police he eventually saw Valente approach the Nissan sedan once more and decided to walk away.
“Respectfully, I have said all I have to say on the matter to the right people,” John wrote on Reddit on Wednesday night.
As of Thursday (Friday AEDT), it’s unknown whether John will receive the $US50,000 ($75,700) reward the FBI had offered for information about the Brown shooting.
Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI, said it was possible when asked by reporters.
“It would be logical to think that, absolutely, that individual would be entitled to that,” he said.
AP
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