LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We’re learning new details about the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting suspect 67-year-old Anthony Polito.
According to Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill, Polito was a former university professor at East Carolina University and applied to several jobs at different Nevada higher education institutions. McMahill said he was rejected each time.
Channel 13 spoke with Michelle Wade, a former student of Polito at ECU, who described Polito as "odd" and "quirky."
“He was probably one of the most memorable professors,” said Wade. “He would constantly talk about Vegas trips and the Wynn.”
Wade graduated from ECU in 2015 and took some of his courses in 2013. She said when she learned about the UNLV shooting, she connected with her former ECU classmates.
“I got a ton of texts from my old classmates,” said Wade. “The first thing we said was, ‘Oh my God, Vegas.’ Because he constantly talked about Vegas, which is odd. I mean, it’s shocking but also, he definitely had some issues.”
According to ECU Chief Communications Officer Jeannine Huston, Polito worked as an assistant professor in the school’s college of business for nearly 16 years.
“I just think, as a business professor, he seemed very outside of the norm from our other faculty,” said Wade. “He kind of has that Italian, like he always used to wear a black, long coat.”
Wade said Polito did not have kids and wasn’t married.
Polito was also an instructor in Henderson at Roseman University, according to Vice President of Communications Jason Roth.
FULL COVERAGE: Everything we know about the UNLV shooting: Victims, resources, support
Roth said he was a member of the adjunct faculty in the Master of Business Administration Program and employed at the school from October 2018 until June 2022, when the MBA program was discontinued.
Polito was also a member of American Mensa from March 1980 until March 2023, according to spokesperson Charles Brown.
Mensa is a high-IQ society that requires members in the top 2 percent of a standardized intelligence exam to join. Brown said Polito failed to renew his membership earlier this year.
The shooting has left many in the UNLV community shocked, including law professor Jeffrey Stempel.
“I feel guilty about it,” said Stempel. “I’m out of town, and I wasn’t in danger at all.”
Stempel has been a professor at UNLV for 25 years and said he’s never dealt with an incident like Wednesday.
“We’ve never had anybody pull a knife and certainly not a gun,” said Stempel. “It’s part of a larger problem of guns being available with regard to mental state. I’ve been worried about this. If you think about it, a university is a pretty hard place to guard without making it really restrictive.”
