Anthony Polito
Patricia Navarro Velez
Cha Jan Chang
The gunman who opened fire at UNLV on Wednesday had a “list of people he was seeking” and sent nearly two dozen letters to university officials across the country, at least one containing an unidentified white powder, authorities said.
But none of the three faculty members killed or the one wounded were on the so-called target list, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said.
The list included people at UNLV and Eastern Carolina University, where he used to work, the sheriff said.
The gunman, Anthony Polito, 67, of Henderson, was a career professor who had unsuccessfully applied for jobs a number of times at several Nevada institutions of higher education, McMahill said.
Police used dashcam video recovered from Polito’s car to track his movements to a Henderson post office before the shooting, McMahill said.
Authorities sifted through thousands of pieces of mail and found 22 letters with no return address that Polito had directed to university personnel at UNLV and across the country, McMahill said.
In screening the envelopes, the first one contained “an unknown white powder substance,” the sheriff said. A hazardous materials team was processing the letters, he said.
McMahill did not otherwise detail the contents of the letters.
A search of Polito’s apartment, meanwhile, turned up a copy of his last will and testament, computers, ammunition and a box for a Taurus 9 mm handgun, the same type of weapon used in the shooting, McMahill said. The gun was purchased legally last year, he said.
McMahill also noted that Polito was struggling financially, and there was an eviction notice on the door of his apartment.
Polito showed up at the UNLV campus at 11:28 a.m. Wednesday armed with the handgun and 11 magazines of ammunition, McMahill said.
He entered Beam Hall, home of UNLV’s business school, where he opened fire on four faculty members, McMahill said.
The Clark County coroner identified two of those killed as Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, who died of multiple gunshot wounds, and Cha Jan Chang, 64, who died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Another victim who died has not been identified, pending notification of family members, the coroner said.
The surviving victim, a 38-year-old man, was at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, McMahill said. The man’s condition, which had been stable, was downgraded, he said.
The man, a visiting professor at UNLV, was shot on the fifth floor of the building and made his way outside, McMahill said. Two officers put him into a police car and rushed him to a waiting ambulance, McMahill said.
The first report of shots fired came about 11:45 a.m., and the first officer arrived on scene in 78 seconds, authorities said.
Metro and UNLV police officers heard shooting inside Beam Hall and went in without hesitation, McMahill said.
Polito exited the building about 11:55 a.m. and encountered two plainclothes UNLV detectives, who engaged in a brief gunfight, authorities said.
Polito was hit several times and was declared dead at the scene, authorities said. He still had nine loaded magazines on him, McMahill said.
Adam Garcia, chief of University Police Services, called the detectives heroes. “They risked their lives to save countless others” in what could have been an even worse bloodbath, he said.
“Thank you doesn’t seem enough for the police officers,” University President Keith Whitfield said.
“A normal person would run away from danger. They ran to it and made our university safe again and clearly stopped a larger tragedy from happening,” Whitfield said.