Without further context, I don’t blame them for being hostile towards “Accusations, speculation and conspiracies…on social media and in some news reports”. Remember the Boston bombing? Tips shouldn’t be public.

Update:

The murder was solved due to a post to reddit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8giswDXoAAV-Cp?format=png&name=...

Tips should be "public" in this case because that's the only way they get noticed enough to garner attention. Wouldn't surprise me if "homeless man" was ignored by the cops if he tried earlier, or "homeless man" was too afraid to approach them directly because of how cops treat the homeless.

Well maybe they should have been a bit more open to "conspiracies" since they're now saying they think they're connected and that they found a link of the same make/model car at both. Seeing as the "homeless guy" who remembered the plate was seemingly ignored for 5 days, he should have just blasted it on X.

Fortunately at least one person on reddit posted about the car 2 days ago ( https://old.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/1pnkwoq/fbi_pos... ) posted it, since it seems to be one of the few ways to get heard.