The man suspected of opening fire at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding a fourth, has been identified by Las Vegas Metro Sheriff Kevin McMahill as former East Carolina University Professor Anthony Polito.
According to his LinkedIn page, Tony Polito, 67, was an Associate Professor at East Carolina University for nearly 16 years, from Aug. 2001 – Jan. 2017.
In a statement, ECU officials said Polito was employed on Aug. 13, 2001, as an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business.
He resigned from ECU on Jan. 17, 2017, as tenured associate professor.
The UNLV shooting took place at the university’s Lee Business School.
ABC news is reporting that Polito had sought a job at UNLV but apparently did not succeed in that effort.
Campus police detectives confronted the gunman within minutes of the reports of gunfire out on campus, according to the Associated Press, and Polito was killed at the scene.
The preliminary investigation shows the victims killed in the shooting were faculty or staff, not students. Investigators have not released the names of the victims or a possible motive. They have also not said what type of weapon was used.
On his personal website, Polito talks about his love for Las Vegas, his music, movie and literary preferences, and his personal theories about the Zodiac Killer, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, and other events.
Coursicle – a college course scheduling app used by students at several North Carolina institutions -- allows students to rate their professors. Students there described him as eccentric, unorthodox, and said he spent a lot of time telling stories about his life. Most of the reviews of Polito were positive.
RMP - RateMyProfesssors.com – is a more popular forum for college student feedback, and until the UNLV shooting Polito was well-regarded there by ECU students who were pleased with his “unconventional” teaching style.
Some ECU students on campus said they were unsettled by the news and its connection to ECU. Senior Anja Lee said she first heard the news today in a group text message from friends.
"A lot of people in the chat right now are surprised because it's also sad that he's being connected back to ECU right now considering he's not here anymore," Lee said. "We're also just scared for how it looks on ECU."
She added the news weighs on her mind as she prepares for finals. In first hearing the incident, Lee said she was reminded of the shooting at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill earlier this year, in which a graduate student shot and killed his advisor and sent the campus into lockdown for hours.
"At first I thought it was on our campus, which terrified me and which is really real considering that the UNC shooting just happened and that's really common in our culture unfortunately to say," Lee said.
