ReutersAfter six days of searching and little progress, the hunt for the man suspected in the Dec. 13 Brown University shooting has suddenly gained momentum.
Police believe Claudio Nieves Valiente, 48, killed two students inside a classroom in an engineering building before heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and shooting a professor there.
Despite investigators combing through CCTV footage for days and issuing multiple calls for information – including the promise of a $50,000 (£37,500) reward – it was only on Thursday when reports indicated a breakthrough had been made.
Police say the main lead came from an anonymous Reddit user who initially posted online urging them to look for the suspect’s car. After a search that spanned several states, they tracked the vehicle and found the suspect dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire.
“He opened this issue wide open.”
Investigators praised a key figure — identified only as “John” in a Providence police affidavit — as a source of vital information in tracking down the suspect.
“He opened this case,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “When you break it, you break it.”
As photos of an interesting new person circulated on social media, John posted on Reddit and said he thought he had identified the man now known as Nieves Valiente.
“I’m very serious. The police should check out a gray Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” the post read.
In the comments, other users urged him to contact the FBI.
Police did not link the vehicle to the suspect until the man told them about the Nissan, according to the affidavit. They were then able to find more videos of the car by clicking on dozens of street cameras around Providence.
Mayor Brett Smiley told CNN that the tipster was a graduate of Brown University. He said he was photographed in a photo released by police, which prompted him to come forward.
“He initially provided the Reddit tip. Anonymously,” he said.
He added: “It is an amazing sequence of events, but it turned out to be crucial to our investigation. We are grateful for it.”
Outside the car, police say John provided other important details to investigators and was “fully prepared.”
They say he had several unusual encounters with the suspect before shooting Brown.
The affidavit says he met Nieves-Valiente in the engineering building’s bathroom a few hours before the attack on Brown. He became suspicious after noticing that the suspect’s clothing was “inappropriate and inappropriate for the weather.”
John then followed the suspect out of the building where, according to police, he watched him “suddenly” turn around from the Nissan when he noticed he was being watched.
According to his testimony to police, a “cat and mouse game” then took place as the suspect repeatedly ran away after seeing “John.”
In one moment, the two men spoke.
“Your car is back there, why is it circling the block?” “John” shouted at the suspect.
“I don’t know you from anyone,” he replied, according to the affidavit. “Why are you bothering me?”
“John” told police he eventually saw Nieves Valiente approaching the Nissan again and decided to leave the scene.
ReutersJohn provided all this information to the police during his testimony.
“Respectfully, I’ve said everything I have to say about this to the right people,” he wrote on Reddit late Wednesday.
Investigators were able to track the vehicle to an Alamo rental location in downtown Boston. Then, from the rental contract, they found the name of the suspect.
Meanwhile, the car was tracked near the home of the MIT professor who was killed, 47-year-old Nuno F. Gomez Loureiro. It was later found that she had been moved to a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where the suspect was found dead on Thursday.
Police are working to determine the motive behind the shooting, and admitted that there are still many unknowns.
It’s also not clear whether John will receive the $50,000 reward officials have offered for information, though FBI Agent Ted Dukes asked if that was possible at a news conference Thursday.
“It would certainly be logical to believe that,” he added. “This individual is entitled to that.”