Tipsheet

Suspect Identified in UNLV Mass Shooting

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 07, 2023 7:05 AM

SEE UPDATE BELOW

Las Vegas Police swarmed the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, yesterday afternoon due to an active shooter situation. UNLV blasted alerts for students and staff to shelter in place. Those who could evacuate were advised to do so. In short, the order was to ‘run-fight-hide’ until the situation was resolved. Police eventually contained the shooter, who was later discovered deceased. There were four victims in the mass shooting. Three died, and another was wounded. We don’t know the identity of the shooter, but this individual was reportedly someone who had applied to teach at UNLV (via Associated Press): 

 

The man suspected of fatally shooting three people and wounding another at a Las Vegas university Wednesday was a professor who unsuccessfully sought a job at the school, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press.

The gunman was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, police said. The attack at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas sent shock waves through a city still scarred by the deaths of 60 people in a 2017 mass shooting. 

The suspect previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information publicly. 

[…] 

Students and the community were alerted to the emergency by a university post on X that warned: “This is not a test. RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.” 


CBS News also reported that the shooter was an instructor, a white male in his 60s. Police won’t release his name until the families of the victims have been notified. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said this easily could have been a more tragic and deadly attack if not for law enforcement officers responding and engaging the subject: 

McMahill said that, during the attack, there was a gathering outside Beam Hall that included people eating and building Lego sets together. He said there could have been many more deaths if responding officers had not "raced to the campus" within minutes and engaged in armed contact. 

[…] 

UNLV will remain closed for the week, and additional determinations will be made about whether it will reopen on Monday, university police chief Adam Garcia said at the evening news conference. 

UPDATE: The shooter is Anthony Polito. Police say the victims of the shooting were faculty and staff only (via ABC News):

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The deceased suspect in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting has been identified as Anthony Polito, 67, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, sources said. He had ties to North Carolina and Georgia, where he previously worked as a college professor, sources said.

Polito was armed with a handgun during Wednesday's on-campus attack in which three people were killed, authorities said.

Investigators have now determined that the victims killed were faculty or staff, not students. That suggests to detectives that the rampage may not have been random, but may have been an attack that targeted certain people because of some sort of previous relationship or interactions.