Key Takeaways:
- The manhunt for the Brown University gunman lasted five days, surpassing the four-day search for the Boston Marathon bombers.
- The investigation was complicated by early misidentification of a person of interest and limited, low-quality video footage.
- A Reddit tipster provided crucial information that led police to the shooter, who was later found dead by suicide in a New Hampshire storage unit.
- The suspect, identified as former Brown grad student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, shot and killed prominent MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at his home in the Boston area while on the run.
- The motive behind the shootings is still unknown, but investigators believe the suspect and the MIT professor had crossed paths before.
Introduction to the Manhunt
The manhunt for the Brown University gunman was a complex and challenging investigation that lasted five days, surpassing the four-day search for the Boston Marathon bombers. The suspect, identified as former Brown grad student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead by suicide in a New Hampshire storage unit on Thursday night, police said. During the days the gunman was on the run, investigators say he went on to shoot and kill prominent MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at his home in the Boston area. The investigation was complicated by early misidentification of a person of interest and limited, low-quality video footage.
Early Misidentification of a Person of Interest
The morning after the shooting, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that authorities had detained a person of interest overnight. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a news briefing that the city could "breathe a little easier." However, later in the day, officials released the person after determining that he had no involvement in the shooting. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that some evidence had "pointed to" the initial person of interest, but that the investigation now "points in a different direction." Providence Police Chief Colonel Oscar L. Perez Jr. said the detention was "not a mistake" but "just how investigations work." Multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News on Monday that the investigation had fully moved away from that person, and that investigators "had to effectively restart after early missteps" set the process "back by several hours."
Challenges in the Investigation
The investigation was further complicated by poor-quality video footage. Authorities later shared footage of a second person of interest who they believed was the shooter, but the images released to the public were blurry and did not clearly show the person’s face. The man was dressed in dark clothing and wearing a hat and face covering. Officials have said part of the Brown University building where the shooting occurred lacked cameras, citing its age. Brown University said in a statement that the campus has "an expansive network of security cameras," more than 1,200 in all, but acknowledged that cameras "do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory and office across the 250+ buildings on campus."
Breakthrough in the Investigation
It wasn’t until a Reddit user posted comments about his encounters with the man and shared information about the car he was driving that law enforcement was able to pick up the trail and identify who they were looking for. The Reddit tipster, known as "John," provided crucial information that police say led them to the shooter. Investigators determined that a gray Nissan Sentra rental car was captured on license-plate readers near Brown University from Dec. 1 to Dec. 12. When police showed the tipster two of those vehicle photos, known as Flock images, he said, "Holy s—. That might be it." CCTV images from the day before the shooting also captured an individual in the area of Brown University "consistent with images" of the suspect that were taken from surveillance video at the agency in Boston where he rented the car.
Connecting the Dots
Following the Reddit user’s tip, investigators were able to connect the dots and identify the suspect. Rental car records confirmed the suspect’s identity, police said. At some point after the shooting, the suspect left Providence and drove back to Boston. The charging documents say Google email and voice accounts associated with the shooter were logged onto from IP addresses near Boston University on Sunday, Dec. 14. Then on the evening of Monday, Dec. 15, Loureiro was shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died the next day. The professor’s home is about a half mile from the area where the suspect logged into his Google accounts the day before. Police say surveillance footage also captured images of a vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s rental car leaving the area after Loureiro was shot.
Conclusion of the Investigation
The tip from "John" about the suspicious man and his car in Providence came in to police the day after Loureiro’s shooting, and the investigation accelerated. "He blew this case right open," Neronha said. Sources told CBS News that once they had the name of the suspect, they found the storage unit he’d rented in New Hampshire and knew to search there. That’s where they found his body Thursday night — two days after he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an autopsy revealed. The motive behind the shootings is still unknown, but investigators believe the suspect and the MIT professor had crossed paths before. Both studied physics at the same university program in their native Portugal in the late 1990s. "My understanding is that they did know each other," said Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.