How Reddit post helped catch fugitive Claudio Valente? here's what you need to know

The suspect in the Brown University shooting incident, in which two students were killed and nine others injured, was found dead at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire.

Officials from the Massachusetts law enforcement said the 48-year-old suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who is identified as a Portuguese national, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to the Brown University President, Christian Paxon, the now-dead suspect was enrolled in physics classes between 2000 and 2001, where he attended classes at the same buildings—Barus and Holley—where he opened fire at the students.

Police identified Valente as the suspected shooter who killed MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro. The professor was shot at his home on Monday and died in hospital the following day.

How a Reddit Tip Helped Police Catch Claudio Valente

A key break in the case came from an anonymous tip about a Reddit post. The post provided officers a detailed sighting of a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates, suspected to be a rental, parked near the Rhode Island Historical Society, as reported by the NewsWeek.

The tipster described seeing the driver use a key fob and act suspiciously.

The anonymous post read, “I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving.”

The post further disclosed, “It was parked outside in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke St side.”

The tipster added, “I know because he used his key fob to open the car, approached it, and then something prompted him to back away.

When he backed away, he relocked the car. I found that odd, so when he circled the block, I approached the car. This is when I saw the Florida plates. He was parked in the section between the gate of the RIHS and the corner of Cooke and George St.”

Investigators from the Providence police were able to locate their suspect through tracking this car down and where it was rented from—Alamo Rent A Car in Boston.

Last week on Saturday, December 13, 2025, a masked gunman entered a Brown University review session, opened fire, and fled, killing two students: Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, a freshman from Uzbekistan.