LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 67-year-old college professor who was denied jobs at various Nevada colleges and universities stuffed loaded handgun magazines into his…
A 67-year-old college professor who was denied jobs at various Nevada colleges and universities stuffed loaded handgun magazines into his waistband before walking into a University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus building and killing three faculty members, police said.
After police killed him in a shootout, Anthony Polito was found to be carrying nine magazines for a 9mm handgun he’d legally purchased last year and also a list of targets at the school — although none of those shot were on that list, police said Thursday.
He was killed in a shootout with police about 10 minutes after the first reports of shots fired in Beam Hall, a business school building.
Police still had no motive for Wednesday’s attack, which also left a 38-year-old visiting professor in life-threatening condition at a hospital.
The university was to remain closed Friday but was tentatively scheduled to reopen next week for finals.
Polito arrived at UNLV at 11:28 a.m., about 15 minutes before the shooting, in a 2007 Lexus that he parked in a lot south of the business school, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said.
Polito got out of the car, placed items in his waistband and then entered Beam Hall at 11:33 a.m. The first reports of gunfire came at 11:45 a.m., McMahill said.
Terrified students and professors cowered in classrooms and offices as the gunman roamed the top three floors of UNLV’s five-story Lee Business School.
University and city police swarmed into and outside the building. UNLV police Chief Adam Garcia has said the first university officer arrived at the business school within 78 seconds of the gunfire report.
Near the main entrance, UNLV officers saw Polito leaving the building and he shot at them, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department statement said Thursday night.
The officers fired back, killing him at the scene.
Authorities searched Beam Hall and found two people dead on the third floor and one victim dead on the fourth floor, the statement said.
Investigators believe the wounded survivor was shot on the fifth floor, but he managed to make it to the ground floor.
Student Jordan Eckermann, who was in a second-floor classroom in the business school when the rampage began, said the timestamp on a short cellphone video he recorded showed the building’s alarm went off at 11:48 a.
