Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"...the tipster who blew wide open the case is reportedly a homeless Brown graduate who lived in the basement of the engineering building..." Where did you read this?




https://kfanplus.iheart.com/content/2025-12-19-homeless-man-...

It was posted on a Fox News affiliate. He won't get the reward, because he called 911 rather than the tipline.


FWIW, The New York Post video on this said he will get the reward.

That doesn't surprise me at all.

Makes me furious, but it doesn't surprise me.


I assume he will also no longer be able to live in the engineering hall basement. Beyond personal moral satisfaction, coming forward only means sacrifice.

But a number of people have lost their lives, which keeps the scale of the tipster's personal losses in perspective. A terrible event all around.


> number of people have lost their lives, which keeps the scale of the tipster's personal losses in perspective

I disagree. The shooter’s victims fell to a random act of violence. (As in the victims were randomly selected. The shooter didn’t randomly occur.)

It is tragic. But it was a crime committed by one man, now dead, who targeted the innocent.

The tipster is more than innocent. He is a hero. His eviction is not a random act of cruelty, but a result of his heroism. And his assailants aren’t a monster, whom we don’t expect to strive for goodness, but us.


> And his assailants aren’t a monster, whom we don’t expect to strive for goodness, but us.

I expect monstrous actions from all humankind, though. What sets “us” apart from deviants is the deftness of our self-justification.


To be clear, there’s no actual evidence that he’s being evicted. Talking about “his eviction” is pretty premature. It also seems like he will receive the reward.

Last sentence went a little insane.

> Last sentence went a little insane

I'm drawing a moral analogy to mass murder, so the whole thing is going to tend towards the unhinged. But I'll stand by it. There is something sad in ordinary people bending to banal evil. Monsters being monsters is just horrific.


Mass murder is about as far as you can get from banal. It's an extremely rare tragedy to experience. But we're talking about two things: one is a violent crime and one is a civil matter involving a squatter.

The building owners do have a right to occupy their own building, right? Or are you proposing we deny them their ownership as some kind of reward to the hero? That would amount to advocating that two wrongs make a right.

Calling the building owners 'assailants' for simply wanting to peacefully occupy their own building is quite insane.

Why not give him cash or a job or something else?


He wasn't interfering with the building owners. You're making up a justification to screw this guy over. That's really sad.

Oh if he wasn't interferring, then they must have allowed him to keep living there? Why is that sad, you want him to be kicked out?

(You forgot to use logic or explain a point of view and instead just made a random moral judgement and expressed the emotion it made you feel, so I had to make some assumptions about your intentions and depth of thought)


> Mass murder is about as far as you can get from banal

Not what was said.

> Why not give him cash or a job or something else?

Sure. Why not.


> Calling the building owners 'assailants' for simply wanting to peacefully occupy their own building is quite insane.

The characterization of “us” as “assailants” is an acknowledgment of the sorrowful fate that we as a society inflict on nearly every whistleblower despite the fact that we as a society encourage people to be whistleblowers.


This is conflating whistleblowing with the need to pay rent on your residence. This guy is not exactly a Julian Assange.

[flagged]


The fuck are you talking about?

And I'm not just saying that as a reaction, I really want to know how you could have possibly interpreted the above comment to get that reaction. Please explain.


https://news.sky.com/story/how-a-reddit-post-blew-brown-univ...

> How a Reddit post blew Brown University shooting investigation wide open

> Frustration had mounted that the murderer had managed to get away and that a clear image of his face hadn't emerged - until a Reddit post finally put police on his trail.


That says he's a reddit poster, not a Brown graduate who lived in the basement of the engineering building.

A lot of reddit posters live in basements, a subset of which are in the engineering building.

What I heard is he called the police tip line and left a message but didn't hear back for two days. After two days he left this tip and then was made a person of interest. This is just what I heard, not sure if there's more to this story.

And...?? How does "he was a Brown graduate who lived in the basement of the engineering building" follow? Wtf?

Those two descriptions are not mutually contradictory.

Im a bit worried for the homeless guy, he helped solve the case but he likely blew up his cover and will have to find a new shelter.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: