A Reddit post describing a vehicle near Brown University helped investigators identify the man authorities say killed two Brown students and wounded others in a campus shooting, then fatally shot an MIT physics professor days later, according to an affidavit from the Providence Police Department.
The affidavit, which details investigators’ early steps in the case, says police broke through after receiving a tip pointing them to a post on the Providence-area subreddit that described a gray Nissan with Florida plates near campus shortly before the shooting. Authorities later identified the suspect as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48. Law enforcement later tracked Valente to a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where he was found dead earlier this week.
The case spans multiple institutions in New England and has drawn attention because of the scale of the Brown attack, the subsequent killing in Massachusetts, and the role an online post played in advancing the investigation. Officials have not said what motivated the shootings.
The Brown shooting took place Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island, according to the affidavit. Brown students Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed, and nine others were injured, the document says.
Two days later, on Monday, MIT physics professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was killed at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, about 50 miles from Providence, according to the affidavit and a report cited by NPR.
Earlier this week, law enforcement tracked Valente to a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where he was discovered dead, according to the NPR report.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said the outcome brought some measure of closure, even though the case will not go to trial. “While we’ll never be able to prosecute this individual, I hope this result begins to provide some small measure of closure for the victims and their families,” Neronha said.
What investigators say they know about the suspect
Police say Valente was born in Torres Novas, Santarem, Portugal, and was a legal permanent resident of the United States, according to the Providence police affidavit.
The affidavit says Valente arrived in the United States in August 2000 as a graduate student at Brown on an F-1 visa, which is used by international students enrolled full-time in U.S. colleges and universities.
Valente was enrolled in Brown’s Ph.D. physics program from fall 2000 through the spring 2001 semester, after which he took a leave of absence, according to the affidavit. He officially withdrew in fall 2003, the affidavit says.
At a Thursday news conference, Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said Valente and Loureiro attended the same academic program between 1995 and 2000 at a university in Portugal.
The affidavit also outlines Valente’s immigration status in later years. F-1 visa recipients are required to return home after completing their studies, but the affidavit says Valente received a “diversity immigrant visa” in May 2017. In September 2017, he was admitted to the United States as a legal permanent resident at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to the affidavit.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which typically makes around 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries with lower rates of immigration to the U.S., was suspended by the Trump administration in the wake of the shootings, according to NPR’s reporting.
Police say Valente’s last known address was in Miami. The NPR report says it is unclear what happened in Valente’s life or what he was doing from 2017 until the days leading up to the shootings.
A Reddit post becomes a lead
The affidavit says that on Dec. 16, three days after the Brown shooting, investigators received information from an anonymous source that there was a Reddit post in the Providence subreddit referencing details about the shooting.
At the time, police had released surveillance images of the suspect, according to the NPR report. Neronha described the post as a key breakthrough, NPR reported.
According to the affidavit, the post was written by a witness who said they saw the suspect, later identified as Valente, walking near Brown before the shooting. The post included a suggestion for investigators: “The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving.”
The post said the car was parked behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on Cooke Street near Brown’s campus, according to the affidavit.
Police refer to the witness as “John,” according to the affidavit. On Dec. 17, John approached Providence police officers and described his encounter with Valente before the shooting, the affidavit says.
What the witness told police
In the affidavit, investigators say John reported first seeing Valente inside a bathroom in Brown’s Barus and Holley building about two hours before the shooting on Saturday.
John described Valente’s clothing as “flimsy,” “poor quality” and “inappropriate and inadequate” for the weather at the time, according to the affidavit. John also told police Valente was wearing a face mask that covered the entire lower half of his face.
John later encountered Valente again near the Rhode Island Historical Society and said he saw him approach the gray Nissan with Florida plates parked nearby, according to the affidavit.
John told investigators a game of “cat and mouse” followed as he continued to follow Valente, according to the affidavit. The affidavit says John confronted him, and Valente responded, “I don’t know you from nobody. Why are you harassing me?” John eventually continued on his way, the affidavit says.
What’s next
Officials have said Valente was found dead, ending the possibility of prosecution. The affidavit and officials’ statements lay out how investigators identified Valente and connected the cases, but the NPR report describes the story as developing, with key questions still unanswered, including what led up to the shootings and Valente’s activities in the years before the attacks.
