Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say • Hacker News Board

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#251

Post by laidoffamazon » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

djaouen wrote: post #95

laidoffamazon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My assumption is most Ivy leaguers (specifically undergrads) generally have no monetary constraints after graduating so this very much reads to me as a bohemian “by choice” decision to be more interesting than an actual tragic story.

I graduated from an Ivy and, after graduation, I was (and continue to be, to this day) dirt poor.

I have some doubts about this, or at least what your definition of dirt poor is.

The ability required to get into an ivy is so significant I don’t see how someone could fail to make substantial sums if they wanted to.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#252

Post by ndriscoll » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:29 PM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #130

10xDev wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But resentment over what? I haven't seen anything on this.

I don't know much about the suspect, but I do know that people have been saying for years that they go into deep debt to get degrees, even in things that are supposed to be respected or in demand, and then it turns out there is actually no job market or success path for that degree. I assume the implication is it had something to do with this kind of frustration. (Though the suspect went to school two decades ago and…

At least when I was in school 15 years ago (math/engineering), a non- or partially-funded (including living stipend) grad school "acceptance" in the US was understood by all of my peers to be a rejection. I saw a post on reddit a few years ago saying that's still true and is in fact also true in the humanities (with an assumed TA role). Is that not accurate? Why are people going into debt for grad school? Did no one tell them you're not supposed to pay for it? Are they just unwilling to accept they were rejected?

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#253

Post by notKilgoreTrout » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:35 PM UTC

energy123 wrote: post #191

cafard wrote: post #3

My apologies to the guy who first proposed that the shootings were related--I thought that was a real stretch.

Unless there was a reason to believe they were related, I wouldn't apologize to a broken clock.

The arguments against seemed to show the weakness of frequentists in practical deduction.. It certainly could have been a domestic where the police already knew but weren't communicating it but otherwise most suggestions didn't match the statistics of the specific demographic/locations to compete with the anomaly of a total AWOL with good luck, nothing to lose and a connection to top academia who wasn't dead or in jail.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#254

Post by ndarray » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC

energy123 wrote: post #191

cafard wrote: post #3

My apologies to the guy who first proposed that the shootings were related--I thought that was a real stretch.

Unless there was a reason to believe they were related, I wouldn't apologize to a broken clock.

There are two types of broken clocks. One is always suspicious, the other thinks nothing ever happens. One is more often right than the other, but both are equally broken.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#255

Post by darubedarob » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

lambda wrote: post #162

SoftTalker wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not uncommon. University buildings are pretty open even today. I worked with a homeless guy who was a university employee, so he had a legit staff ID card. He just didn't want to spend money on rent. He knew where the empty rooms were that nobody ever used, where the showers were. I bet every major university has a few people living/sheltering in campus buildings.

RMS famously lived out of his office at MIT for a while.

RMS could life couch surfing from conference to conference?

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#256

Post by darubedarob » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

storus wrote: post #219

w1ntermut3 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Academic success perhaps. The killer and Nuno Loureiro, the MIT professor he killed, were in the same class at Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal's leading engineering school). Loureiro had a distinguished career at MIT while the killer was homeless.

Maybe he had some idea that his buddy ran away with and he attributed his success to his idea, while he was homeless? There was a whole TV show around a similar idea (Breaking Bad).

Im pretty certain that of plagiate software would include rejected students works whole swaths of the academic successful would be let go.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#257

Post by crubier » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 6:12 PM UTC

bdangubic wrote: post #99

eduardogarza wrote: post #88

Obviously a lot of footage in investigations does not reach the public, during active ones or even after. But if you've followed these stories it seems liket between the Brown shooting and the Kirk/Utah shooting, there is a potential concern with universities not having security footage in certain areas of their campus? Has anyone else inquired more into this?

exactly what we need, more cameras everywhere

I mean, yes? The cameras do help solve a ton of crime. The real issue is using them for surveillance without a cause, and that imo this is what should be under scrutiny. But trying to fight cameras existing in general is a lost cause imo

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#258

Post by musicale » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 6:27 PM UTC

lazide wrote: post #228

musicale wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Graduate student violence is more common that it should be. For example, you hear about suicides every year. I can't help but suspect that sometimes it may be related to graduate school itself, which can be stressful and unforgiving, with minimal support, and where supervisors often hold both academic power over their students' futures and financial power over their livelihoods. (And switching supervisors, even at th…

Graduate school violence == suicide?

Perhaps I should have said something like intentional harm leading to death to make it clearer. But the person isn't any more alive even if they were somehow killed by some gentle, peaceful method.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#259

Post by watwut » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 6:35 PM UTC

almosthere wrote: post #156

nervousvarun wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep seeing this sort of sentiment everywhere and I'm trying to understand it. The same thing happened after Charlie Kirk was killed and the arrest there hinged on a confession by the killer to his dad. A lot of commentary then that the police/FBI got lucky. Ditto Mangione. They got lucky he was found in a random McDonalds. What exactly is the expectation here? Is there some sort of wide-spread belief that the worl…

I mentioned to someone that day that the person would be caught by a family member - that this stuff was looking more and more like Mangione - who was also primarily caught by his mom. That being said, the only reason family ends up ratting these people out is because of the high pressure it ends up on the family. If it turns out they find these people, and the family did not turn them in, they are going to the big h…

> the only reason family ends up ratting these people out is because of the high pressure it ends up on the family.

That is not true. There was no pressure on unabomber brother - he "ratted" him out entirely on own will. Also Elliot Rodgers parents called police after they read the manifesto - before any pressure happened. Ex wife of DC shootings had restraining order on him, feared him, and when police asked whether she thinks he is capable of violence like that her first answer was "yes".

The thing also is, these people are often assholes in their own lives, toward relatives too. They tend to have track record of domestic violence and abuse.

Re: Brown/MIT shooting suspect found dead, officials say

#260

Post by wildlogic » Sat, Dec 20, 2025, 6:36 PM UTC

xrd wrote: post #94

nervousvarun wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep seeing this sort of sentiment everywhere and I'm trying to understand it. The same thing happened after Charlie Kirk was killed and the arrest there hinged on a confession by the killer to his dad. A lot of commentary then that the police/FBI got lucky. Ditto Mangione. They got lucky he was found in a random McDonalds. What exactly is the expectation here? Is there some sort of wide-spread belief that the worl…

Just checking, are you sure this is the story: "hinged on a confession by the killer to his dad." It seems that story is a-changing and that's an important note. My point might be that what is put out as the story often comes with an agenda.

This is a reference I think to the Charlie Kirk murder.