CRIME
UNLV Shooter Was Facing Eviction, Targeting Faculty After Failing To Get Job
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The man who shot and killed three people and wounded a fourth at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before he was killed by police on Wednesday was struggling financially and facing eviction, authorities said Thursday.
Anthony Polito, 67, had applied for multiple jobs at Nevada universities, including UNLV, and was rejected for all of them, Las Vegas Metro Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference Thursday. Investigators found a list in his possession of faculty members at UNLV and at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., where he worked from 2001 to 2017. None of the names listed were the victims of the shooting, however.
Students were not the targets here, Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson said.
Polito arrived at campus at 11:28 a.m. and parked his car south of Beam Hall at 11:30 a.m. He entered Beam Hall at 11:33 a.m., McMahill said. Police received a report of shots fired at 11:45 a.m., and the first officer arrived at the scene 78 seconds later, University Police Chief Adam Garcia said.
Officers entered the building seeking the shooter, but McMahill said Polito left the building at 11:55 a.m. and was met by two plainclothes officers, who engaged him and shot him dead.
Two of the three deceased victims were identified as Patricia Navarro-Velez, 39, an assistant professor of accounting who worked on the fourth floor of Beam Hall, and ChaJan Jerry Chang, 64, a professor of business who worked on the third floor. The third victim’s name was not released.
McMahill said the injured victim, a 38-year-old visiting professor, was in life-threatening condition at Sunrise Hospital.
Polito used a Taurus 9 mm handgun that was purchased legally last year, McMahill said.
Investigators searching his car’s dashboard camera video learned he had stopped at the post office and mailed 22 letters to various university personnel across the country before the attack. The letters, which had no return address, were intercepted by law enforcement from a post office in nearby Henderson. One was found to contain a harmless white powder.
McMahill said all 22 individuals to whom the letters were addressed have been contacted, and asked anyone in the education world who may have received a taped envelope with no return address to report it to authorities.
McMahill said Polito’s motive remains unclear, but officers searching his apartment found an eviction notice taped to his door.
TMX contributed to this article.
