The more we learn about the shootings that left two Brown University students and one MIT professor dead, the crazier the story gets.
If you thought the car crash press conferences held this past week by Providence, Rhode Island, officials were the strangest thing about the case, hold my beer. It turns out that a homeless guy and a Reddit post did what seasoned law enforcement professionals were unable to do: identify the suspect.
RedState’s Susie Moore did a masterful job detailing the Thursday night press conference at which officials identified Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, 48, as the suspect in the Brown shooting, and confirmed that he had killed himself in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
READ MORE: Authorities: Suspected Brown U Shooter Dead of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound, Linked to MIT Killing
New Mysterious Second ‘Person of Interest’ Sought in Manhunt After Brown U. Shooting
At a later press conference, officials in Massachusetts confirmed Neves-Valente was their prime suspect in the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said there was security footage that captured Neves-Valente “entering an apartment building in the location of the professor’s apartment, and then later that evening, he is seen about an hour later entering the storage unit wearing the same clothes that he had been seen wearing right after the murder.”
🚨 NEW 🚨 U.S. Attorney releases photo and complaint affidavit for suspect in Brown University and MIT professor shootings, Claudio Neves-Valente.
READ CHARGING DOCUMENT HERE: https://t.co/YHYcatbj8Z pic.twitter.com/EsM14iGuXs
— U.S. Attorney Massachusetts (@DMAnews1) December 19, 2025
The dots are still being connected, but it appears that Neves-Valente and Loureiro may have known each other in their native Portugal. Brown University has confirmed that Neves-Valente was a student there in the early 2000s, so there are clear connections to both cases, but the motive is still unknown.
What we do know is that, despite the self-congratulatory nature of the most recent Providence presser, it wasn’t exactly crack detective work that led law enforcement to Neves-Valente. It turns out that a homeless guy by the name of John – who’s apparently a former Brown student that the university allows to sleep in the building where the shooting took place – is the real hero of the case (and is in line to get the $50,000 reward offered by Brown).
John, it’s been revealed, was the second person of interest whose image was put out earlier this week, and he was onto the suspect way before anyone else. According to a Fox News report (video below), John became suspicious of Neves-Valente after the two “locked eyes” in a campus bathroom hours before the shooting. John then followed the gunman around the campus and eventually confronted him about his weird behavior.
🚨 #BREAKING: It’s been confirmed that a HOMELESS MAN blew the Brown University shooting case “wide open” through a Reddit post, named John
He called the tip line and flagged his OWN Reddit post, and was seen on video walking very close to the shooter
The man might get the… pic.twitter.com/3G58doZwXJ
— Brandon Tatum (@TheOfficerTatum) December 19, 2025
After learning of the deadly rampage in the university’s Barus and Holley Building, John detailed everything in a Reddit post, encouraging law enforcement to look for a gray Sentra with Florida tags and giving the precise location of the car in the hours before the shooting. He then called the tip line to draw attention to his post.
And that’s what ultimately led law enforcement to the storage facility in Salem, where they discovered that their suspect has offed himself. John’s the real hero here – without his vigilance and follow-through, we might have been subjected to weeks more of the Keystone Kop routine. Huzzah to John for being the good guy.
Incidentally, President Trump has halted the green card lottery program that allowed Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente to be in the United States. Said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.”
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