Providence mayor, police chief honored at college basketball game after scrutiny over Brown shooter investigation

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez were greeted with applause Friday night at Providence College's men's basketball game against Seton Hall, a day after authorities announced that the suspect in the Brown University shooting was found dead in a Salem storage unit.

The moment underscored local leaders' handling of a high-profile investigation that drew national attention for early detentions and questions about transparency. Authorities said the probe included the detention of an innocent man who was later cleared, and officers spent six days canvassing neighborhoods and reviewing surveillance footage before identifying a person of interest and, ultimately, the suspect.

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who studied physics at Brown University from 2000 to 2001, was identified by authorities as the shooter who killed two Brown students and an MIT professor on Dec. 13. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday in a storage unit in Salem, ending the six-day manhunt. The motive has not been determined and remains under investigation. Earlier, detectives questioned a person of interest at a hotel outside Providence but ruled him out as a suspect, and surveillance video showed a masked, stocky man about 5 feet 8 inches tall walking with an unusual gait.

Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed Neves Valente's ties to the campus were limited. In the days since the shooting, Brown sent students home and canceled some campus activities as authorities pursued leads amid a cautious, tightly managed investigation and a community seeking timely answers. The episode highlighted tensions that often arise when local officials face intense scrutiny over how violent-crime cases are investigated and communicated to the public.