UPDATE (Dec. 7) — Las Vegas police identified the gunman in Wednesday's shooting that killed three University of Nevada, Las Vegas faculty members.
Police have officially named Anthony James Polito as the shooter.
The 67-year-old Polito was a “semi-retired” marketing and supply chain management professor who worked in North Carolina and Georgia before arriving at Henderson’s Roseman University in 2018. His criminal history only showed a computer trespass charge in Virginia in 1992.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a news conference on Thursday that Polito was armed with a Taurus 9mm handgun and brought 11 magazines with him to UNLV. Nine loaded magazines were found on his person after the shooting. The gun was bought legally in 2022.
McMahill said University Police and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police entered the scene "without hesitation." After the shooting inside, Polito exited the building where he was killed following a gunfight with police. He was shot multiple times.
The names of the University Police officers who fatally shot Polito will be released on Friday.
Police then searched each building for additional victims and suspects, sometimes breaking into rooms that had been barricaded by staff and students. Two victims were found on the third floor of Beam Hall, and another was on the fourth floor. The surviving victim was on the fifth floor, but was able to exit the building and was taken to the hospital. McMahill said the surviving victim is a 38-year-old visiting professor who is at Sunrise Hospital in life-threatening condition.
The sequence of shootings has not yet been determined, he said.
Police then searched Polito's 2007 Lexus, and used his dashboard camera to determine his movements in the morning. They found that before UNLV, he went to a Henderson post office where he mailed 22 letters to university personnel around the country with no return address.
The letters were intercepted through 14,000 pieces of mail, and the first one had an unknown white powder inside. On Friday, police said the powder was "found to be harmless."
McMahill encouraged anyone working in higher education who receives a letter with no return address to contact their local authorities.
At Polito's Henderson home, police found a chair with an arrow pointing to a document on the floor, which McMahill described as his last will and testament. They recovered computers and hard drives from his home, as well as ammunition and cartridges.
Polito had recently applied for positions at various higher education facilities in Nevada, but was denied. He was also facing financial struggles and was in the process of being evicted.
He had a list of targets that included faculty at UNLV and Eastern Carolina University. McMahill said they've contacted all but one person on the list to ensure their safety.
"When our first responders arrived, people were running, people were hunkering down, many people had already fled the scene, and their recollections will be critical to our investigators as we move forward to better understanding what exactly occurred," McMahill said.
He encouraged anyone who was in or near Beam Hall during the shooting to contact Metro's homicide department at (702) 828-3521, or CrimeStoppers of Nevada.
"Yesterday, we lost members of our Rebel family," said University Police Chief Adam Garcia. "I want to extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims, their friends and their colleagues at UNLV. Our community has suffered an unimaginable loss by this senseless, criminal act and my heart breaks for the victims' families, our students, our staff, our state and our country."
He said the first officer was on scene 78 seconds after the first 911 call, and it "could have been a bloodbath."
UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield thanked first responders, noting when others would run from danger, "they ran toward the danger."
"Incidents like this rock us to the bone," he said.
Whitfield, Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson and Clark County Fire Department Chief John Steinbeck said the Vegas Resiliency Center is available to help anyone who needs it, whether that's this week, or any time in the future. They can be reached at (702) 455-2433.
2 victims identified as UNLV professors
UPDATE (Dec. 7) — The Clark County Coroner's Office has identified two of the three victims in yesterday's shooting at UNLV.
Officials say the victims were Professor Cha Jan Chang, known as Jerry, 64, of Henderson, and Assistant Professor Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, of Las Vegas. Both died of gunshot wounds.
The third victim has been identified but officials are still working on notifying next of kin.
Las Vegas police are expected to hold an additional press conference on Thursday evening. UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield will be speaking, as well.
According to UNLV, only Beam Hall (BEH) remained inaccessible on Thursday while the police investigation is completed.
"All other buildings can be accessed via University Police Services for anyone who needs to come to campus to gather essential belongings only (such as medicine, keys, etc.). The staging area for those coming to campus to gather essential belongings will be at the UNLV Transit Center (UTC). Maryland Parkway is open for traffic and vehicles that were left on the main campus can now be accessed and retrieved," they announced.
3 dead, 1 injured in UNLV shooting, police say
UPDATE (Dec. 7) — Las Vegas police say there are three dead and one person is hospitalized, but stable. The shooter is also dead. Four additional people were treated for panic attacks and two officers suffered minor injuries.
Just before final exams and UNLV’s holiday break, three people were shot dead in a building on campus Wednesday. A fourth is in critical condition. And the shooter is dead.
The gunman in Wednesday’s shooting was a professor who had unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. He previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information publicly.
Another law enforcement official identified the suspect as Anthony Polito, 67.
Investigators searched an apartment in Henderson, Nevada, late Wednesday as part of the investigation and retrieved several electronic devices, including Polito’s cellphone, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Suspect dead, 'appears to be multiple victims' in UNLV shooting
ORIGINAL REPORT (Dec. 6) — A suspect is dead and there "appears to be multiple victims" in a shooting on the UNLV campus on Wednesday.
University Police said they were responding to an active shooter at 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 6 in the Beam Hall, Frank and Estella Building, home of UNLV’s Lee Business School. An additional report of shots fired in the Student Union was reported at 12:19 p.m.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said there "appears to be multiple victims at this time." Police said the shooter was deceased at 12:37 p.m.
In a press briefing, LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there is no further threat to the community. "We do have one suspect down. We have no idea of motive," he said. “Right now, we know there are three victims, but unknown extent of the injuries. That number could change. We will update you when we know more."
McMahill noted a number of victims were transported to local hospitals, but a number of victims was not initially provided.
James Woodbridge, a philosophy professor at UNLV, said he was teaching class in Beam Hall at the time of the shooting.
"A couple of my students heard what sounded like a banging on something, then the fire alarm went off, so we evacuated," he said via message. "We started off just standing outside the building until several police cars showed up and cops with rifles piled out. They set up a perimeter and some rushed in. So we all cleared away from the building. We went towards CBC and then Lied. Standing outside of Lied we suddenly heard what sounded like automatic rifle fire (to my untrained ear), so everybody rushed inside at Lied. There they herded everyone up off of the ground floor. Now we’re on lockdown."
UNLV on X, formerly Twitter, told everyone on campus to continue sheltering in place.
"Police are evacuating buildings one at a time. This remains an active investigation. The suspect has been contained," they said.
Clark County Fire Department Chief John Steinbeck said a reunification center has been set up at the Convention Center's north hall, but it will take time to transport students there.
For more information, call 702-455-AIDE or visit facofsouthernnevada.org.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
