PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — An informant who had a bizarre encounter with another man on the sidewalk outside Brown University provided information that was key to police identifying the suspect they believe killed two students at the school and two days later shot and killed an MIT professor.
In an affidavit to Providence police, the source, identified only as “John,” is described by investigators as a key figure in providing law enforcement with the details needed to determine who was behind Brown’s shooting and the MIT professor who was fatally shot at his Brooklyn home on Monday.
Anxiety and frustration have gripped the Providence, Rhode Island community since a gunman fired more than 40 rounds inside the Brown Engineering Building as police appeared to have no further identification of the man.
However, on the sixth day of the investigation, the case progressed smoothly, culminating in police announcing late Thursday that they found the suspected shooter dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The reason is John, the intelligence provider.
“He blew the whistle on this case,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said of the man who provided information that led to the shooter being found nearly 24 hours later.
“When you crack it, you crack it,” he said.
According to police, John had several conflicts with Claudio Neves Valente, 48, before Saturday’s attack. When police released a photo of a suspect, now identified as Neves Valente, John began posting on the social media forum Reddit that he recognized the man and speculated that police should investigate a gray Nissan car that was “possibly a rental.” Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, which John said he did. The police affidavit said they learned of the tip on Dec. 16, three days after the shooting and the day after the tip line was created.
So far, officials have not linked the vehicle to the possible shooter, the police affidavit said.
That detail allowed them to obtain more video of a Nissan Sentra sedan with Florida license plates and allowed Providence police to tap into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated across the city by surveillance company Flock Safety.
John gave investigators more key details: He encountered Neves Valente in a bathroom in the engineering building hours before the attack, and John noted that the suspect’s clothing was “ill-fitting and inappropriate for the weather,” the affidavit said.
John also bumped into Neves Valente outside, just a few blocks from the building, who John saw “suddenly” make a U-turn from the Nissan when he saw John. What would happen next, according to John’s testimony, would be a “cat and mouse game” – the two would meet and Neves Valente would escape.
John said at one point he yelled, “Your car is right behind you, why are you circling the block?”
“The suspect responded, ‘I don’t know you,’ and the suspect repeatedly asked, ‘Why are you harassing me?'” according to the affidavit.
John told police he eventually saw Neves Valente approaching the Nissan sedan again and decided to walk away.
“Respectfully, I have said everything I had to say about this matter to the right people,” John wrote on Reddit on Wednesday night.
As of Thursday, it was unclear whether John would receive the $50,000 reward the FBI is offering for information about Brown’s shooting.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Doakes said when asked by reporters that this is possible.
“Logically, this person has absolutely the right to do this,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.
