“Anthony Polito Mistaken for Bystander by Police During University Shooting”

Accident – death – Obituary News : Newly Released Footage Shows Police Mistook Gunman for Bystander in UNLV Shooting

US police officers responding to the deadly shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) made a critical mistake, mistaking the gunman for a bystander and urging him to leave the building. Body camera footage and police accounts reveal the frantic search for the suspect and victims during the December 6 shooting that claimed the lives of three professors and left one wounded on the 30,000-student campus.

The two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers, with their weapons drawn, climbed stairs to a second-floor walkway overlooking the ground floor of the business school. The shooter, later identified as 67-year-old Anthony Polito, briefly appears in the more than five hours of footage made public on Thursday. This video provides the first glimpse of the suspect inside the building after he opened fire on the top floors of the five-story business school.

At the time of the attack, students and staff were enjoying their lunch and playing games in a large courtyard just outside the business school, which is situated across from the university’s student union. The video shows Polito wearing a long black trench coat over a white shirt, calmly moving through the first floor of the business school as officers swarmed the building. Despite having his hand visible and no indication that he was armed, the officers shouted at Polito to get out and directed him towards an exit while continuing their search.

Clark County Undersheriff Andrew Walsh stated that it was apparent the two officers did not realize they had encountered the gunman inside the building. He explained that at the time, they did not have a description of the shooter and knew that there were other police resources on the first floor. Approximately a minute later, Polito exited the building, pulled out his weapon, and engaged in a shootout with university police officers, resulting in his death. Fortunately, no one outside the building was harmed.

The body camera footage released thus far does not include the shootout. However, a short video previously shared by Sheriff Kevin McMahill depicted Polito descending a set of stairs outside the business school, with his long black coat swaying. In this video, one of the university police officers approached Polito from behind but took cover behind a patrol car when the shooter turned around with his weapon. McMahill clarified that the university officers also initially did not realize they had encountered the gunman.

While police have yet to pinpoint the exact motive for the shooting, they revealed that Polito was facing financial difficulties and had been rejected for a teaching position at UNLV and other Nevada schools. Before the incident, he had left a tenured post in 2017 at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, after teaching business there for over 15 years.

The three professors killed at UNLV were Naoko Takemaru, 69, an author and associate professor of Japanese studies; Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang, 64, an associate professor in the business school’s Management, Entrepreneurship & Technology department; and Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, an accounting professor specializing in research on cybersecurity disclosures and data analytics. The wounded victim, a 38-year-old visiting professor, remains unidentified.

Police have announced that more body camera footage will be released in the coming weeks, shedding further light on the tragic event that unfolded at UNLV..