Washington: Officials in the US state of Rhode Island have denounced misinformation that they said complicated their multiday search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded others at Brown University.&nbsp;Law enforcement identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who attended the Ivy League institution decades ago. They said he acted alone and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage unit.&nbsp;But throughout the week, anonymous and right-wing accounts on X flooded the platform with unfounded posts claiming the shooter was a Palestinian enrolled at the school, a narrative that exploded further as university webpages mentioning the student were seemingly removed.&nbsp;&quot;Criminal investigations are grounded in evidence, not speculation or online commentary,&quot; Colonel Darnell Weaver, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, said at the briefing announcing Neves Valente&#39;s identification late Thursday.&nbsp;&quot;The endless barrage of misinformation, disinformation, rumors, leaks and clickbait were not helpful in this investigation. Distractions and unfounded criticisms do not support this work. They complicate it and threaten to undermine the justice we seek.&quot;&nbsp;The claims began when an anonymous X account posted photos and videos Monday of the student, Mustapha Kharbouch, beside footage police had released of the person of interest.&nbsp;Within hours, Kharbouch&#39;s image and email were plastered across social media, prompting death and deportation threats as internet sleuths homed in on the individual&#39;s pro-Palestinian activism and compared their body and gait to the suspect.&nbsp;Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, billionaire Bill Ackman and US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon were among those who amplified the narrative.&nbsp;&quot;Bring him to swift American justice,&quot; said one widespread post Ackman shared, which alleged a cover-up and declared a &quot;war with Islam.&quot;&nbsp;Prior to Neves Valente&#39;s identification, a member of a local law enforcement agency involved in the investigation told AFP that Kharbouch had never been a person of interest.

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Rhode Island officials condemned online misinformation that hindered the Brown University shooting investigation, falsely blaming a Palestinian student. Police identified the real suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, who acted alone and was found dead.

Misinformation complicated Brown University shooting probe: police

NEW YORK: FBI experts on Tuesday combed through the vicinity of a weekend mass shooting that killed two students at the elite Brown University, as the hunt for the gunman dragged into a fourth day.&nbsp;Images posted by the bureau on social media showed laboratory specialists and evidence response teams conducting a forensic search on the snow-covered grounds outside the Providence, Rhode Island campus.&nbsp;The shooting happened Saturday, when a man with a rifle burst into a campus building where exams were underway and opened fire, before fleeing.&nbsp;Providence officials screened a new video timeline at a briefing Tuesday which appeared to show the person of interest walking through residential areas in the town.&nbsp;&quot;There&#39;s enhanced video footage so we are asking the public to see the body movements, the body posture... that may help you identify this individual,&quot; said the town&#39;s police chief colonel, Oscar Perez.&nbsp;Perez renewed his appeal for members of the public with homes and vehicles equipped with cameras to supply footage to the police.&nbsp;Two-hundred actionable tips had been received by investigators, he added.&nbsp;Authorities initially detained a man in connection with the shooting, but they later released him, saying he was unconnected.&nbsp;The FBI, which is offering a $50,000 reward for the suspect&#39;s capture, said he should be considered &quot;armed and dangerous&quot; and described him as &quot;approximately 5 foot 8 inches with a stocky build.&quot;&nbsp;On Tuesday, Brown University called on its students who may have been in the area of the shooting Saturday to arrange for a police interview.&nbsp;Later in the day, it also issued a statement, denouncing &quot;accusations, speculation and conspiracies&quot; voiced on social media against one of its students.&nbsp;&quot;If this individual&#39;s name had any relevance to the current investigation, they would be actively looking for this individual and providing information publicly,&quot; the school said.&nbsp;Tributes to victimsThe two students killed were Ella Cook, vice president of Brown&#39;s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon.&nbsp;&quot;Ella, who came to Brown from Mountain Brook, Alabama, was a passionate and intellectually curious member of our community who was interested in French and Francophone studies,&quot; Brown president Christina H. Paxson said.&nbsp;&quot;Mukhammad... was known for being driven, conscientious and disciplined, particularly as he pursued his deep ambition to make a positive impact in the world by becoming a neurosurgeon.&quot;&nbsp;The attack is the latest incident of mass shooting in the United States, where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.&nbsp;There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.&nbsp;During a Christmas event Sunday at the White House, US President Donald Trump spoke briefly about the shooting, saying &quot;things can happen&quot; and wishing the injured to &quot;get well fast.&quot;&nbsp;Brown, which has around 11,000 students, issued an emergency alert on Saturday following reports of a shooting near its engineering and physics departments. Two exams had been scheduled at the time.

Images posted by the bureau on social media showed laboratory specialists and evidence response teams conducting a forensic search on the snow-covered grounds outside the Providence, Rhode Island campus.

Articles tagged with "Brown University shooting"

Misinformation complicated Brown University shooting probe: police

FBI widens net in hunt for Brown University shooter