UNLV Shooting Suspect Had Note Taped to His Door When Police Executed Search Warrant
The suspect in a deadly shooting rampage Wednesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, reportedly had an eviction notice on the door to his home when police served a search warrant there.
The notice was yet another clue as Las Vegas police seek a motive in the shooting spree that left three people dead, police say, at the hands of 67-year-old former college professor Anthony Polito.
According to law enforcement officials, the former longtime professor at East Carolina University had a “target list” inside the home and that he was “struggling financially” before he killed three faculty members at the school and wounded another.
Polito reportedly applied for a job at UNLV three years ago but was not offered a job.
He died on Wednesday after he initiated a shootout with police.
According to The Independent, the first thing investigators found when they approached his Henderson, Nevada, apartment to serve a search warrant was a notice to evict taped on the front door.
Once inside, police found evidence that Polito had sent letters to 22 school “personnel across the country” – some of which contained an unknown white substance.
“None of the individuals on the target list became a victim,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department chief Kevin McMahill.
Instead, police say Polito killed 64-year-old UNLV professor Cha Jan Chang, 39-year-old assistant professor Patricia Navarro and another individual whose identity has not yet been released.
The identity of the fourth person who was shot has also not yet been released.
As police seek a motive in the killings, former ECU students of Polito have spoken out.
According to NBC News, Polito worked as a tenured associate professor in the department of marketing and supply chain management at the school from 2001 to 2017.
Those who knew Polito said he was obsessed with Las Vegas.
While at ECU in Greenville, North Carolina, Polito was described as both “eccentric” and “peculiar.”
A number of Polito’s former students said he often talked about the city.
Another said that when it was revealed the shooter Wednesday was a former ECU teacher, they immediately thought of Polito.
“My immediate reaction was it had to be Tony Polito,” Paul Whittington told NBC News.
Whittington added, “I didn’t say that because I thought he was capable of anything like that. I didn’t say that because I thought that’s the kind of person that he was. I said that because my entire time in his class — he was obsessed with Las Vegas.”
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