Terrifying moment cops mistake UNLV gunman for bystander telling him to ‘get out’: New bodycam footage shows officers moving through classrooms as they tell dispatch there are ‘bodies on every f***ing floor’
Officers responding to the deadly UNLV shooting mistook the gunman for a bystander who told him to “go away,” newly released body camera footage shows.
Two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers can be seen climbing stairs into the school with guns drawn during the Dec. 6 shooting.
The gunman, 67-year-old Anthony Polito, appears for only a few moments in the more than five hours of footage released Wednesday.
Polito is seen wearing a long black trench coat over a white shirt and calmly moving through the first floor of the business school, with one of his hands visible at his side.
The officers can be heard shouting at Polito: 'Go away! out!' as they point to an exit and continue along a walkway.
Polito opened fire in the school, killing three professors, Jan Chang, Patricia Velez and Naoko Takemaru. He was angry after a university application was rejected.
Anthony Polito is seen here walking out of the building housing the business school at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas after fatally shooting three professors and wounding a fourth
Polito opened fire on the university earlier this month, killing three professors and wounding a fourth person
Clark County Undersheriff Andrew Walsh said Thursday that the two officers were unaware they had encountered the gunman in the building.
“They don't have a description of the shooter at that time and they know there are other law enforcement on the first floor,” Walsh said.
About a minute after the brief interaction, Polito left the building and was killed in a shootout after drawing his gun, according to authorities.
Other clips show officers swarming the campus shortly after Polito opened fire just before noon.
Officers can be seen combing stairwells and hallways in an attempt to locate the shooter.
You hear an officer say: 'Be careful. Do not hurry. Note the doors. Keep watching the doors, it's still active.'
Another officer can be heard reporting that Polito was “down,” but they continue to search the campus.
An officer can be heard adding, “I've got bodies here, like a lot of them. Every damn floor.”
Other clips show officers swarming the campus shortly after Polito opened fire just before noon
Police have not yet identified a specific motive for the shooting, but said he had been rejected from college
Police did not specify a motive for the shooting but said he had been rejected for a teaching position at UNLV and other Nevada schools.
He left a tenured position at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, in 2017 after teaching business there for more than fifteen years.
In a statement, UNLV President Keith Whitfield said the mass shooting was “the most difficult day in the history of our university,” and said his “heart breaks for the families, friends and loved ones of Dr. Navarro and Dr. Chang.”
Navarro-Velez was a mother of four children, her former professor at the University of Puerto Rico, David Correa, told the Las vegas review diary.
Chang was a business professor who worked at UNLV for more than twenty years and was a long-respected lecturer focused on management information systems.
Takemaru was an associate professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Nevada and taught all levels of the Japanese language.
This photo from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deptartment shows the gun Polito used in the UNLV campus shooting
Professor Naoko Takemaru, pictured here, died of multiple gunshot wounds according to officials with the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner
Patricia Navarro-Velez, an assistant professor in UNLV's accounting department, and Jerry Changn were shot and killed by Polito
Before the shooting, Polito sent 22 letters to faculty members at universities across the US
Officials were able to intercept some of the letters sent, and according to law enforcement, the first letter opened contained an “unknown white powder substance.”
Investigators searched an apartment in nearby Henderson, Nevada, after the shooting.
Officials said they recovered several electronic devices, including Polito's cellphone, one of the officials said. They also found a 'last will and testament' type document.