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Providence Mayor Brett Smiley and Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez received a standing ovation at Friday night’s men’s college basketball game between Providence and Seton Hall.
The cheers came a day after the suspected gunman who shot and killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor earlier this week was found dead by local authorities in Salem, New Hampshire.
Smiley and Perez came under national scrutiny in the days after the shooting because their investigation included the detention of an innocent man who was mistaken for the suspect and questionable transparency with the public during the manhunt.
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The investigation lasted six days before authorities found the suspected shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Salem storage unit Thursday.
The surrounding community spent days waiting for answers, with residents on edge after the school sent students home early after the shooting.
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Detectives were initially questioned a person of interest at an out-of-town hotel but ruled him out as a suspect, according to authorities.
The police spent days canvassing the neighborhood for surveillance video, which showed photos of a person of interest — a masked, burly figure who stood about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and walked with a strange gait.
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Neves Valente, 48, was a Portuguese citizen and studied physics at Brown from fall 2000 to spring 2001, according to Brown President Christina Paxson. But he went on leave and eventually retired in 2003.
Neves Valente’s motive has not been determined and is still under investigation.
