Brown University’s investigation into the 2024 shooting reveals how a tipster, later identified via online activity, led to suspect Neves Valente’s vehicle in New Hampshire, linked by financial records and a storage unit. Valente, a former student with LPR status since September 2017, entered a campus-edge building matching witness descriptions of laser sights and discarded evidence. Ballistics and DNA testing ruled out Claudio, another suspect flagged early. Six survivors remain stable as authorities weigh motive, operational secrecy, and public safety, underscoring how fragmented leads and institutional caution shaped the case’s resolution amid community trauma. [Automatically generated summary]
They were taken from the car rental business place that we learned about that.
No.
unidentified
President Paxon, if you could.
So the situation is described that you had the suspected gunman and this other person had an encounter in the engineering building hours before the shooting.
I had been told by an employee that there had been concerns raised at Brown previously about people getting in the building.
Have you heard those and was anything done to address those concerns about people getting into the building?
And I think what you would see is the video evidence in this case, from my perspective, I'm not a law enforcement agent, has been incredibly helpful.
The moving of the person around the neighborhood, those video images, they helped crack this case.
So I think video was important.
And as the Attorney General explained at a recent press conference, this individual was not spending his time on the Brown campus.
He came into a building on the edge of the campus.
He left.
He was in the neighborhoods.
The investigation focused on the neighborhoods.
The video was there.
And that was really, really instrumental in cracking the case.
But you can ask that.
unidentified
And this is my follow-up, Madam President Peter Say at the podium.
Yes, video played a big role in this case.
The neighbor's video.
The rental car video.
But not the video from the building that he walked in freely both before when he got in a confrontation and when he came back in decided to kill people.
You didn't have cameras in that building.
Just say it so we could get this over here.
And my next question is, will you have a follow-up?
We'll look at everything that is done, but I do not think a lack of cameras in that building had anything to do with what happened there.
And we will go forward.
unidentified
Thank you, President.
Tom, Tom Frill and WPRO.
Colonel Perez, I'm hearing from sources that the person that identified the shooter happened to be a homeless person that either lived around or inside that Barrison Holly building.
Can you confirm more about this person or us and the ever filed for President Backson?
My question was for the chair chopping if you wouldn't mind.
In October, the Brown Daily Herald reported that you had a very no confidence in your leadership.
And students were concerned for their safety and the fact that you had prioritized desk jobs over having overfield jobs and having more people patrolling the campus.
Now, in light of this, do you accept any kind of responsibility for this?
And now that we've given these prior warnings, are you going to re-evaluate how the Brown police operate in the future now so this doesn't happen again and these students can feel more safe on campus when they return?
So as I stated earlier, I'm profoundly proud of the men and women of public safety and profoundly proud of our police department.
We will continue with the heroic work that they've done and continue to work side by side with our partners.
And everything else that comes with that is a continual effort to do what is best for the safety and security of our campus.
But will you reassess how the people are out here within your department?
Every single day, we work and endeavor to keep our campus safe, whatever that entails and all that that entails.
There was evidence that was observed from outside the car that matched our crime scenes, meaning mask, clothing, satchel, which you can see on that video.
unidentified
And there was a main plate over a Florida plate.
This guy was changing plates.
One of the reasons it was so hard to find was he knew what he was doing.
He was changing plates.
And so that's why the collective work of following and finding this car was made more difficult because this guy was changing plates.
And so we got a main plate and we got a Florida plate on the same car in New Hampshire.
Patrick.
As he was aware of the question, I was just going to ask you to ask.
Please, Tom Grack, again, from ATF, it's okay.
As far as the ballistics evidence, I know that the last question concerned matching the guns found to the crime scene.
Several people up here have said, this investigation is ongoing and in many ways, in some ways, just beginning.
So those weapons that were found at the scene, we will be using our tools such as NIBEN to compare the ballistic evidence to see if we have any matches.
So we use those tools to rule things in and to rule them out as well.
So we'll be following up on that throughout the remainder of the investigation.
Patrick.
Neves Valente was a Portuguese national.
Under what status was he in the country and how did he get into the country?
Do we know that this fine I have a problem about him?
Well, from the beginning, I've told you that this investigation is extremely, extremely complex and intense.
And so we used every resource as soon as we responded to the call.
I stated that earlier, I'm proud of the men and women of this department.
Yes, we did find somebody that we thought obviously was the person, but we continued on.
We continued on investigating.
We continued on canvassing the areas.
We continued on with video.
And that's why we ended up where we're at now.
unidentified
If I can just jump in here, I just want to continue to answer that question.
It's an important one.
And the answer to that is this.
And I tried to convey it a couple of days ago.
We broke ourselves out into teams.
So while the Providence team and the state police team and the ATF team were working here in Providence to follow up leads, develop whatever video evidence we can, which eventually led to all the steps that you've seen and are laid out in the affidavit, which is on our website, and it is multiple pages.
You'll see the progression.
So while the FBI were working Coventry, we were working here.
Now, you may ask, well, what was it about Coventry that made us, for those of us who've been in law enforcement for a long time, why did we have to run that lead to ground?
Here's why.
When the FBI confronted him, initially, he was not cooperative.
When they entered the room to secure it, there were guns in the room.
One of them had a laser sight.
The witnesses had told us there was a laser sight used in the course of the attack.
But that's why you don't get over your skis about, and word choice is important.
unidentified
So while we had to test those ballistics and test the DNA off those guns, and that DNA ruled this guy out, okay, but we had to run that lead to ground.
But while we're running that lead to ground over the course of Sunday, for the most part, my memory is correct, we were working other leads, which eventually led us to a recreation by the great work of the team, including the Marshalls, by the way, that are up here.
unidentified
Movements, image of our cooperating witness.
Witness comes in, and you've heard the rest.
So, you know, this is the way these investigations work.
You don't chase one and stop.
We have chased more than one lead over the course of the last four to five days.
There was one lead that we followed, didn't work out.
There was another lead that we followed, didn't work out.
There was another lead that we followed, didn't work out.
So that's at least in my mind, five different leads that didn't, that one worked out, four didn't.
But you're running them all down at the same time.
So I can't offer any comfort in that regard, but I don't believe that we would have found this person any sooner, given the evidence that was available to us.
unidentified
The way back, can you say why it took so long to get the Tipster's chip?
It looks like he posted on Trim Reddit on Monday and then said on Mediterranean with a lost in the FBI's tip?
And so here we are, and we now identify who the person is.
We're about to make an apprehension.
As I stated earlier, he took his own life.
But that's all part of the investigation that will continue about him.
unidentified
Go ahead.
Okay, so the President Backson.
Chief Parrot said he had no known criminal history that you know of.
We were asked about possible mental illness farms this year.
When he was at Brown, did he have any grievances, disputes with anyone, any problems, any disciplinary issues, any problems at all that were documented?
You mentioned that Claudio was the primary suspect, primary focus from the beginning.
If that's the case, can you elaborate more on why there was someone else detained initially and the lead that led you to that person to being detained initially if Claudio was the primary focus from the beginning?
So we have received a tip about that first person.
We have received a tip about him wanting to get a permit to carry a firearm.
And that led us to also learn that he was a person who potentially could be, it was just where he was denied and then he went to another department and the descriptions led us there.
So we ended up, we had it vetted through.
Obviously, the FBI responded, followed through that whole tip, ended up finding the person, taking him to custody, finding him with two firearms, with a laser.
And so it took a while for us to be able to rule him out.
But it was a tip that came in.
And as I stated earlier, as soon as the call came in, it was all hands on deck.
And there was nothing that we were just going to say, that is not anything that has to do with it, with this case.
Obviously, we went out and wanted to make an apprehension, and we went after that.
If I could just jump in here, Mayor, I'm sorry to sort of do that, but I think I heard you say that Mr. Valenti was the suspect from the start.
No, no, he became their primary focus yesterday at around this time.
unidentified
This name was not known to us until yesterday.
So when our cooperator came in last night, we were able to track the card, get the name, and then we were in the position of today, do we push that name out so that you can help us find this guy, or do we think we know where he is?
And so that was the balance that was, that back and forth analysis in our minds, collective investigative team minds, was going on today.
But his name did not come to us until yesterday.
As I said yesterday, until you have the name, which we did not have until yesterday after our press conference together, that's when this thing heated up.
As soon as you have a name, I believe you can find anybody in this country.
And the fact that this team was able to do it in around 24 hours, I think, is a tribute to them, their hard work, around the clock, to do exactly what we have been talking about doing, which is how long is it going to take?
Brittany, if I could just clarify further on that.
So what I meant, obviously, it was that the image that we released within hours of that person of interest that was walking on Waterman Avenue around the corner that was sent out within minutes.
That became a primary focus of the investigation, that person of interest.
unidentified
If I may, my follow-up.
I believe it was that the last address for Valenti was in Miami.
Correct.
Have law enforcement in Miami been notified?
Are they searching this last address for any potential evidence?
No, Brittany, absolutely.
Yes, that address, I believe, was one that predicated in 2001.
And so, absolutely, the law enforcement agencies, both federal and local, were notified of that.
They also went to that residence as well.
Also, talked to the individuals that were at that particular residence to see if they had any type of connections or associations with Valentine.
La respuesta es que vamos a seguir obviamente trabajando con las organizaciones federales y también entre nosotros buscando esa inteligencia de quién es esa persona, qué motivo lo trajo aquí a la ciudad de Providence a cometer esta tragedia, este incidente.
Pero eso va a tomar tiempo verdaderamente y vamos a tener que averiguar y averiguar más para ver qué fue el motivo que llegó a esta ciudad.
So it was the financial records that the federal agency followed through the investigation that led us to learn that this person had rented a storage unit.
And so, we responded immediately and we found that the vehicle that we were looking for of interest was parked there.
Correct, yeah, it's part of the tip, the tip that was posted actually.
And then also, the tipster had called and has stated that this individual had a fob and was trying to get enter a vehicle that was spark and benevolent.
And so, because of that, we obviously knew there was a vehicle and there was a description of a vehicle.
When we brought him in, he collaborated further on that vehicle.
We put it out through FLOC, the description of it, and we learned that within that time period, there was only a certain amount of vehicles that came up with those description fitting it.
So, our detectives obviously stayed on there and ended up finding this vehicle with Florida plates.
And that's how we ended up with that specific vehicle.
Then, we had learned that the vehicle also potentially could have changed their plates.
And as I stated earlier, we were able to find the vehicle on Flock, actually get the actual plate, learn that it was a car rental, which brought us up to learn that you know that we needed to learn more at the rental place about the individual, which we did.
And then, further later, we find out again through all the work that they did upstairs, I think it was tremendous too.
If you had a chance and an opportunity to see how much work was put in, because it was bits and pieces of information, it's almost like putting a puzzle together.
You only have just a few pieces and you're building it.
And that later on led us with the financial records to learn that he rent a storage unit in New Hampshire, and that's why we ended up with that one for the chief or the attorney general.
unidentified
You mentioned again weighing that public interest versus the information that was available to law enforcement at the time, as this person, again, considered armed and potentially dangerous, was out there.
The chief just spoke to license plates changing on a variety of moments, if you will.
But was it too fast-moving?
Talk to us about weighing again that providing information to the public with an armed and dangerous individual and vehicle use that involved multiple license plates and your decision not to sort of real-time inform the public.
Yeah, so we knew yesterday, last night, who this guy was and that he had rented a car in Boston.
So the question becomes, is he going to return the car to Boston?
But when we thought he might be returning it to the information, you know, to the locations, we wanted to try to take him without him knowing we were coming.
unidentified
As soon as his name gets out there, he is going to be even more in the wind.
And so the question becomes, if you think you might know where he is, right, eventually you find the storage unit, right?
But as the FBI and the ATF and our other partners, Providence Police, state police, developed evidence as to where he was, ultimately in New Hampshire, we decided to pursue to that location.
And there we found the car with those multiple plates that we were looking for, a Florida plate and a main plate on top of it.
I just wanted to touch real quick, and I know ATF is going to be able to answer you that, but that's a great question, Mark.
The reason for that is because when the incident first happened, it was our BCI unit that responded and collected that DNA and protected the integrity of that DNA and sent it out.
unidentified
Thank you.
The evidence collected, the DNA and the firearms were sent to the Connecticut State Police Lab.
They have the best local capabilities to handle that type of evidence and do those type of examinations.
On behalf of the city of Providence, we have not yet assessed what the cost of this investigation is.
Let me finish my answer.
We have not yet assessed what the cost...
Ronaldo, we're done.
Okay.
Listen, one last positive announcement.
As has been said multiple times, the investigation continues.
I know there's lots of questions around motive and otherwise the individuals here are still hard at work.
Yesterday we gave an update with respect to the survivors.
I'm happy to say that one condition was upgraded and now all six survivors are in stable condition.
It is important to not lose fact of the fact that six people are still in the hospital who I know would welcome our prayers.
This has been a traumatic moment for our community.
I hope that today's announcement starts the healing process and provides some closure for that.
As the governor, I think, very eloquently stated, lots of people are going to leave town today, but the rest of us will all still be here and we're going to have a long road ahead.
And I know that what we do best as Rhode Islanders is support one another.
I know this community will support one another to move forward after the worst act of violence that any of us can remember.
The press has played an important role in helping us push out information and get to this moment today.
We're very grateful for all of you.
I'm sure some people will be willing to talk after the press conference.
Thank you all for your time.
unidentified
As General Trump, anybody on the team, congratulations.
General, can I just get a clarification on two C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum, inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country.
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