The homeless hero who police credited for cracking the Brown University shooting and connecting it to the murder of an MIT professor is being “taken care of” by the feds, The Post has learned.
The tipster, whose real name has not been made public and who has been referred to only as “John,” was reportedly living in the basement of a University engineering building before he encountered mass shooter Claudio Neves Valente — and warned authorities about his bizarre interaction with the attacker, helping them crack the case.
John could be in line for a $50,000 award, but for now he’s off the streets, a source confirmed.
“He is being taken care of at the federal level … in a hotel, being fed,” the source said.
“He is the reason they caught the guy,” a homeless man who goes by “Frank” and said he knows the tipster, told The Post.
Frank spoke at the church service at Burnside Park in downtown Providence Saturday. ‘
“They should be…taking care of him,” he said, adding, “I hope he gets that money.”
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley urged FBI Director Kash Patel to give John the entirety of the $50,000 reward that had been promised to help crack the Brown case.
“John is no less than a hero. His bravery, selflessness and stewardship on behalf of his community went far beyond what anyone could ever hope from a tip,” he wrote.
“I believe that our community is breathing easier today because of the extraordinary assistance John provided to our law enforcement agencies. I am writing to you today to request that the entirety of the $50,000 reward be issued to this incredible Providence neighbor,” the mayor said.
“This went far beyond what you’d expect from a normal tipster,” said Josh Estrella, director of communications for Smiley.
“We received hundreds of tips and out of all of them, John’s was far and above the one that helped the most in solving this case.”
Until John’s tip came through, investigators had been scrambling to ID the gunman who killed two Brown students and then gunned down a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor just two days later.
“He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said at a Thursday evening press conference as he praised the tipster.
His encounter first came to light when he started posting on Reddit that he recognized the images of the perp that had been blasted out by authorities in the wake of Saturday’s bloodshed.
“I’m being dead serious,” his Reddit post said. “The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving.”
“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 and that is when I saw the Florida plates,” he wrote.
When he sat down with police, “John” said he encountered Valente in the bathroom of Brown’s engineering building just hours before the attack — and noted the suspect’s clothing was “inappropriate and inadequate for the weather.”
He later bumped into Valente outside the building and yelled out, “Your car is back there, why are you circling the block?”
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