Reddit tip helps crack Brown University shooting as AI surveillance aids hunt

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A rapid turn in the investigation into the Brown University shooting last month shows how a local Reddit tip, paired with a sprawling network of AI-powered cameras, helped authorities pinpoint the suspect and close the case days after the attack.

Investigators say the Dec. 13 shooting on the Brown campus killed two students and wounded nine others. The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown graduate student, fled the campus and slipped into the surrounding neighborhoods, evading detection by using a hard-to-trace phone, obscuring his face with a mask and switching license plates on rental cars. Two days later, he is linked to the killing of an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts. Authorities say the suspect likely killed himself days later; his body was found Thursday in Salem, New Hampshire.

The turnaround came when a Providence Reddit user, known only as “John,” posted a tip on the Providence subreddit and later approached police on the street, identifying himself as the Reddit tipster. The tip focused on a Nissan sedan with Florida plates and prompted investigators to urge the tipster to contact the FBI. Police later confirmed that the tip provided new life to a stalled investigation, linking the car to the suspect and reviving a, at times, elusive search.

With the tip in hand, Providence police combed footage from dozens of AI-powered cameras operated by the surveillance company Flock Safety. The cameras read license plates and record vehicle details such as make, color, and even minor damage. The car linked to Valente appeared in Providence at least 14 times in the weeks preceding the shooting, allowing agencies in nearby cities and states to search for the same vehicle. New Hampshire, due to privacy restrictions on how long images can be kept, did not have access to the same footage. Flock says it shares data only as its customers permit, and the city does not share data with federal immigration authorities. Still, the reach of the network helped turn the tide in what had become a stalled inquiry.

The technology choices drew some attention in the city’s immigrant communities, where concerns about surveillance and privacy linger. “Once you know what they are, you see them everywhere,” said Madalyn McGunagle, a policy associate at the ACLU of Rhode Island, describing the proliferation of vehicle-tracking cameras. Critics also noted that the devices are designed for vehicles, not for tracking pedestrians, a point echoed by Flock Safety’s chief executive, Garrett Langley, who said the company’s cameras are focused on vehicles because most people travel by car and that it would be technically difficult for a user to search for a person.

The Providence police relied on a combination of public-safety partnerships and social-media vigilance to solve the case. Supporters of the Reddit community praised the tip, while critics warned about the dangers of online sleuthing. The Providence subreddit’s moderators, who have long sought to curb online vigilantism, emphasized that their space seeks to avoid “witch hunts” or mob mentality. John, the tipster, was thanked by the city’s leaders but did not publicly discuss the case.

The case also echoed a familiar cautionary note from years past: in 2013, commentators on Reddit and other online boards wrongly smeared a Brown University student as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing because of a perceived resemblance to a grainy image. The Atlantic at the time captured the misstep with the headline: “Hey Reddit, enough Boston bombing vigilantism.” Liza Potts, a professor at Michigan State University who has studied online publics, said the episode helped communities understand that online crowdsourcing can misdirect as easily as it can assist.

Brown University officials moved quickly to tamp down a smear campaign that falsely tied a current Brown student to the campus shooting on social media, noting that such claims can trigger non-stop threats and hate speech. A Brown student described the episode as an “unimaginable nightmare,” detailing the harm caused by online rumors. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, urged social media users to withhold judgment until investigators released verified information, saying “There is simply no need from an investigative point of view for people who have no idea what they’re talking about to offer their stupid and ill-informed views about what happened all over the internet.”

Some observers pointed to Reddit’s Providence community as an example of how certain online spaces can function more responsibly than others. A moderator with long tenure in the Providence subreddit said John’s actions demonstrated how a vigilant member of the public can contribute meaningful information when delivered through proper channels, and that local moderators’ emphasis on caution and accuracy helped prevent a rush to judgment.

Authorities emphasized that the investigation remained a blend of old-fashioned detective work and new digital tools. While the vehicle-led evidence proved pivotal, the broader lesson from the case was not that any one technology would replace traditional policing or investigative reporting, but that a coordinated approach—integrating credible tips from everyday people with expansive camera networks and data-sharing among agencies—could yield faster results in complex, fast-moving cases. In this instance, the community’s tip, the visibility of license-plate data, and cross-jurisdiction collaboration converged to close a case that stretched across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, before the suspect’s death underscored the tragedy of the attack.