Police officers who arrived on the scene during the deadly mass shooting at the University of Nevada mistook the gunman as a bystander and shouted at him to get out of the building, body camera footage reveals.
Hiding within more than five hours worth of body camera footage from 6 December, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found they caught the gunman on camera, with police even urging him to get out of the building, without knowing he was the person who killed three professors and wounded one person.
The footage shows two LVMP officers with their weapons drawn as they climbed the stairs to a second-floor walkway, with a view to the ground floor in the business school building at the Univesity of Nevada.
The shooter, who has now been identified as 67-year-old Anthony Polito, was wearing a long black trench coat and was seen walking coolly through the building for a few split seconds.
The camera pans to Polito, who looks up at the officers, with one shouting, “Get out! Get out!” at him.
The officer’s body camera turns around the other way for a few seconds before turning back to show that the trench coat figure has disappeared.
Polito was caught on camera, unbenknownst to the officers he was the gunman— (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
In the footage, you could only see one of his hands, and there was no indication he was holding a gun at the time.
Clark County Undersheriff Andrew Walsh told The Associated Press on Thursday that it appears the two officers had no idea they had encountered the gunman inside the building.
“They don’t have a description of the shooter at the time, and they know there are other police resources on the first floor,” he said.
Around a minute after this footage had been taken, Polito exited the business school building and was killed in a shootout with university police officers, authorities said.
After he appeared on camera, he vanished a few seconds later— (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
Other body camera footage from the day of the shootings shows Polito in his black trenchcoat with his weapon in hand and university police officers diving behind a patrol car.
Sheriff Kevin MacMahill said at the time this previous footage was released, that the university officers, like the metropolitan police, didn’t know they had encountered the suspected killer.
Antony Polito has been identified as the gunman— (Antony Polito website)
Polito had killed three University of Nevada professors on campus, Naoko Takemaru, 69, Cha Jen “Jerry” Chang, 64 and Patricia Navarro Velez, 39.
Another person was also wounded, a 38-year-old unidentified visiting professor, but is now in a stable condition.
The gunman was a career college professor who had applied for a job at the school but was rejected sometime before he undertook the deadly shooting.
Emergency responders respond at the UNLV campus after a shooting on 6 December 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada— (Getty Images)
However, this is not a confirmed motive for the shootings, but Mr MacMahill added at a press conference earlier this month that he was “struggling financially.”
Polito also had a “list of people he was seeking on a university campus”, as well as faculty from Eastern Carolina University, but police said they have contacted all people on the list to make sure they are okay.
Police said that more body camera footage will be released over the coming weeks.
