LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — 67-year-old Anthony Polito is the deceased gunman of the UNLV shooting on Wednesday, ABC News reports.
ABC reports Polito was armed with a handgun when he killed three people and injured another at UNLV's Lee Business School.
Polito legally purchased the firearm used in the shooting in early 2022, CNN reported, citing a source in law enforcement.
Polito's home is believed to be in the 300 block of Arroyo Grande, where the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was granted a search warrant to continue investigating.
ABC says detectives have retrieved his phone and are now examining it for contents of clues about what could have motivated the killer's attack. Since the victims killed were not students, it suggests to investigators that the rampage was not random and could have been targeting certain people because of some previous relationship or interaction.
AP reported that Polito unsuccessfully sought a job at the school.
Polito is said to have ties to North Carolina and Georgia, where he previously worked as a college professor.
East Carolina University confirmed to Channel 13 on Thursday that Polito was employed as an assistant professor for 16 years. School officials say his employment began on Aug. 31, 2001, in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business.
He resigned from ECU on Jan. 17, 2017, as a tenured associate professor.
Polito also worked at Roseman University, a private four-year institution in Henderson, as adjunct faculty from 2018 to 2022. That's according to Jason Roth, the Vice President of Communications at Roseman.
The suspect also taught in the Masters of Business Administration program in two courses, which included healthcare operation management. He was terminated in June 2022 after the school discontinued the MBA program.
On his personal website, Polito has published a 15-page document on the Zodiac Killer, claiming to have decoded some of the cryptic messaging from the Zodiac Killer. The website also lists the various courses he seems to have taught, with syllabi and schedules, the most recent one being a Business class from 2017 at East Carolina University.
On the website, Polito also has writing about Las Vegas; although it is not clear when these were written. He wrote that he had the pleasure of making more than two dozen trips to Vegas in the last 15 years.
He also shared numerous links to news articles and references to travel guides for Vegas on his website.
On LinkedIn, Polito describes himself as a "Semi-Retired University Professor" living in Las Vegas. His most recent and only listed position is an Associate Professor at East Carolina University, where he listed that he worked between 2001 and 2017. Polito has also listed his Ph.D. and his Master's in Business Administration from the University of Georgia and Duke University, respectively.
He has numerous endorsements from his colleagues at East Carolina University for his skills in student affairs, public speaking, and teaching.
Channel 13 is working to confirm additional information about the four known shooting victims.
UPDATE: Two of three victims of UNLV shooting identified by Clark County Coroner
The shooting forced students, faculty, and staff to shelter in place for what students told KTNV went on for hours. Students were advised to evacuate the area and "RUN-HIDE-FIGHT."
When police started to evacuate those inside buildings, first responders asked them to keep their hands raised.
STUDENTS SPEAK: UNLV students recall yelling, 'bangs' heard; family, community worried
All UNLV classes and academic activities will be canceled through Dec. 10, university president Keith E. Whitfield announced in a letter to the campus community. Students who live on UNLV's campus will be returned back to their housing Wednesday night, Clark County officials stated in an email to media.
College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State University will not hold classes on Thursday, Dec. 7, "due to the evolving nature of the situation at UNLV," school officials stated in a news release.
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