Brown University shooting: Social media users falsely blamed student days before killer was found

A former Brown University student shot and killed two students and injured nine other people Dec. 13 at the Rhode Island school, according to authorities.

At a late-night press briefing five days later, police identified Claudio Manuel Neves Valente as the gunman. The 48-year-old Portuguese national — who attended the school in 2000 and 2001 —  was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility. Neves Valente is also suspected in the Dec. 15 killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, they said.

But in the days before authorities named Neves Valente, prominent right-wing influencers and some social media users baselessly blamed a current Brown student: Mustapha Kharbouch, a Palestinian man studying international affairs and anthropology.

An X account with the handle @0hour1 shared Kharbouch’s name and photo on Dec. 15, and posted Kharbouch’s picture alongside a police-issued photo of the shooting suspect. The posts racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

Others latched on to Kharbouch’s name and the two photos, falsely stating that police had identified him as the shooting suspect, or that his "gait" matched the suspect’s. Many prominent accounts noticed that Brown University websites that mentioned Kharbouch seemed to have been taken down, fueling unfounded allegations against the university. It’s unclear when the pages were removed.

End Wokeness, an X account with nearly 4 million followers, asked in a post that has been deleted, "Umm, why did @BrownUniversity just scrub its entire website of Mustapha Kharbouch (Free Palestine, LGBTQ activist)?"

Conservative influencers Benny Johnson and Laura Loomer flagged the deleted web pages for their millions of followers and raised questions about the university’s activities. Conservative pundit Jack Posobiec claimed on X that a source told him "Providence Police are indeed looking into the student whose online presence was scrubbed today."

Social media users often rush to fill the void when answers are lacking after a tragedy, with many people — including elected officials — sharing unverified information. In some cases, it’s helpful; authorities said a Reddit post forwarded to a Providence Police tip line led them to Neves Valente.

But sharing names and photos of an unverified suspect can endanger an innocent person.

Kharbouch’s legal team said they faced questions from authorities and that the student received death threats from strangers.

Kharbouch was the target of a "disturbing, racist and hateful campaign" to tie him to the shooting, lawyers with the advocacy groups the Clear Project and Muslim Advocates said in a statement.

"Mustapha is a beloved and exemplary member of the Brown University community, an exceptional student, and an engaged citizen of the world," the statement said.

The attorneys said they responded to law enforcement inquiries about his whereabouts on the day of the shooting.

Kharbouch, in the statement, called what he went through "an unimaginable nightmare." He said he woke up on Dec. 16 to "unfounded, vile, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian accusations" and received "non-stop death threats and hate speech."

At a Dec. 16 news conference, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha cautioned against speculating about the shooting suspect’s identity. He didn’t mention Kharbouch by name, but alluded to rumors about the student. 

Neronha said there are many reasons a webpage might be taken down. "If that name meant anything to this investigation, we would be out looking for that person, we will let you know we are looking for that person," he said.

In a press briefing after Neves Valente was found, Rhode Island State Police Supt. Darnell Weaver criticized the online activity. 

"Criminal investigations are grounded in evidence, not speculation or online commentary," he said at the Dec. 18 briefing. "The endless barrage of misinformation, disinformation, rumors, leaks and clickbait were not helpful in this investigation."

Neronha’s office and the Providence Police Department didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about Kharbouch. But a press release, affidavit and arrest warrant released Dec. 19 mentioned only Neves Valente — not Kharbouch. 

Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark said in a statement to PolitiFact that Brown had seen "harmful doxxing activity directed toward at least one member of the Brown University community."

The statement called the "accusations, speculation and conspiracies" about the student "irresponsible" and "in some cases dangerous."

"It is not unusual as a safety measure to take steps to protect an individual’s safety when this kind of activity happens, including in regard to their online presence," the statement said.

Brown University President Christina Paxson expressed relief that authorities found the person responsible for the killings.

"This week has been devastating for our community in a number of ways, including the experiences that members of our community have had with being targeted by online rumors and accusations, and I hope this development also means an end to this truly troubling activity," she said at the Dec. 18 news conference.

Some of the prominent social media accounts later acknowledged Kharbouch wasn’t the suspect after Neves Valente’s death, but they weren’t exactly apologetic.

"I never said it was you. I said you fit the description based on YouTube videos for tips" @0hour1posted Dec. 19 on X. "Good luck in your life."

Our ruling

Social media posts claimed that Karbouch was a suspect in the Dec. 13 shooting that killed two students.

Authorities never publicly named Karbouch as a suspect and dismissed speculation about him in a Dec. 16 press briefing. On Dec. 18, they said Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was the shooter and that they believe he acted alone.

We rate claims that authorities identified Karbouch as a suspect in the case False.