LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Body-worn camera footage released Wednesday by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows the tense moments of law enforcement's response to an active shooter on the UNLV campus earlier this month.
Three faculty members were killed and a fourth was injured when a gunman opened fire in Frank and Estella Beam Hall on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
The gunman, since identified as a career educator who'd tried and failed multiple times to obtain employment at the university, was shot by university police officers outside the building, police said previously.
Body-worn camera videos posted to the Metropolitan Police Department's YouTube page follow three different officers from the time of the arrival on campus, as they work to clear school buildings and help students away from the scene.
Blaring, incessant alarms can be heard coming from multiple buildings in the heart of the university's campus as the videos show officers arriving outside Beam Hall.
As officers arrive on scene, there appears to be confusion about who was inside the locked rooms of the building.
Over the radio, one officer says there's a man down in front of Beam Hall and advises others to watch out for crossfire. A portion of the video is obscured by a black box as an officer walks by what is presumably the gunman on the ground outside the building.
As one officer enters Beam Hall, lines of students run out of lecture halls and classrooms with hands raised and panic-stricken faces. At one point, officers stop to help a wheelchair-assisted student down multiple flights of stairs and out of the building.
Further upstairs in the building, the officers encounter what appears to be the first shooting victim, obscured on the video by a black bar.
The videos also document officers' confusion as they try to understand whether there is a second shooter on the campus.
“There’s a dead suspect outside. We don’t know if there’s a second, because you guys heard shots the same time as the OIS (officer-involved shooting)," one officer tells another. "So we don’t know if there’s a second shooter or not.”
The videos also document officers' difficulty accessing locked rooms in Beam Hall as they tried to make sure the building was clear. We hear the following exchange on the footage:
“This may be a victim. There’s somebody inside there.”
“I think they’re students.”
“Sheltering in place?”
“Yeah, we just need a key.”
“There’s people inside there. Unknown if they’re students.”
Officers then start banging on the door and shouting, "Metro police!"
More footage shows the scenes unfolding nearby at the student union building, where officers are seen moving through the building with rifles.
"Let's go! (officers start running) Go, grab the gun! (yelling) Where's the stairs at? Take the stairs! Take the stairs! Go!"
At this point, police are clearing rooms and hallways one by one.
Visuals from the scene now start to show caution tape, students and teachers leaving with hands on their heads. We hear the following exchange as police continue to find groups of people in the buildings near the shooting.
"How many people are down there? We have civilians down there! We're scared! I've got you. I've got you. I've got civilians coming your way. Don't go back in there! Keep your hands up. Is there anyone else down there? Is anybody hurt? I did not hear the shooting. Good eye on that. Good job. They're civilians and they're just scared."
Back at Beam Hall, police start making grisly discoveries.
One video shows what appears to be some blood on the floor and police start kicking the door. "Why are we kicking this door? There is blood everywhere. Can we have breaching tools to the fifth floor?" an officer is heard saying.
The following exchange is then heard.
Smash the wall if you can't get in. It's sheet rock. Go! Go! Go! Any bodies? Any bodies that we saw anywhere in any room because I have medical here?
None. No victims. Has a victim? 406.
It's the only room with a victim in it if you want to check.
Room 406. 406. Not 409. As far as we know, only one victim on this floor? Yes. One on four. One of four. (lots of people talking) As far as I know, none over there. Okay. We'll just go and check.
Did he just randomly pick?
In the following hours, officers continued to search the school until campus was cleared late that evening.
On Dec. 8, two days after the shooting, officials with the university identified two campus police officers credited with stopping the gunman.
Las Vegas police then released video that shows the two university police officers, Det. Nathaniel Drum and Ofc. Damian Garcia, confronting the suspect in a gun battle that University Police Chief Adam Garcia said "neutralized the threat."
The three victims who were killed have since been identified as Patricia Navarro, 39, Cha Jan Chang, 64 (also known as "Jerry"), and Naoko Takemaru, 69 — all faculty members at UNLV.
The victims were remembered in a vigil on UNLV's campus on Wednesday, Dec. 13, exactly one week after the shooting.
A separate vigil for Dr. Takemaru was alsoheld by family and friends at the professor's home.
