Two victims and suspect in University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting identified

Two of the three victims in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting have been identified as faculty members of the institution.

Professor Cha Jan Chang, known as “Jerry,” 64, and assistant professor Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, were identified by the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner on Thursday, the Washington Examiner confirmed. A third victim, who is also a faculty member, has been identified but their name will not be released until the victim’s next of kin is notified.

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“On behalf of the office, our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and those impacted by this tragic event,” the coroner’s office said in a statement.

Chang had been teaching at UNLV since 2001, most recently at the Lee Business School. He was a professor in the university’s business department, teaching management information systems, according to his faculty page. He’s had a variety of journal publications and has been a featured speaker at numerous presentations and conferences.

Navarro Velez worked in the accounting department at the university and graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Ph.D. in accounting. Her teaching interests were in accounting information systems, and she was a certified information systems auditor, per her staff bio. She was researching cybersecurity disclosures and assurance, internal control weakness disclosure, and data analytics.

The cause of death for Chang was a gunshot wound to the head, and the cause of death for Navarro Velez was multiple gunshot wounds, the coroner’s office said. The manner of death in both cases was ruled as homicide.

A fourth victim, a 38-year-old man, was injured in the shooting. Their name has not been released, but he was a visiting professor. The injured victim was originally described as being in critical condition but continues to be “downgraded” to a non-life-threatening position, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday afternoon.

McMahill confirmed on Thursday afternoon at a press conference that the shooter was Anthony James Polito, a 67-year-old man who lived in Henderson, Nevada. The sheriff said a motive has not been identified, but Polito had recently applied for a job at several Nevada higher education institutions and was denied each time. He also was suffering from financial trouble, McMahill said.

“Our detectives learned prior to the shooting, the suspect had earlier visited a Henderson post office and sent 22 letters to various University personnel across the country with no return address,” McMahill said. “We are currently working with the postal inspector and our federal partners to begin processing these letters. We do not know the contents of these letters, and we’re working to contact the recipients of those letters.”

In the screening of the letters, one letter was found to contain a white powder, McMahill said.

Polito previously worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business, Eastern Carolina University, the university confirmed to CBS News. He resigned from his tenure position in 2017. He received a Ph.D. in business administration in 2002 from the University of Georgia and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 1991, the outlet reported.

McMahill said officers searched Polito’s home and located a chair with an arrow pointing down to a document that police considered Polito’s “last will and testament.” Polito also had a list of people he was seeking on the UNLV campus, as well as faculty from Eastern Carolina University. Police have contacted each person on the list to make sure they are OK, McMahill said.

City and university police responded to reports of an active shooter in Beam Hall, which houses the business school, around 11:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday. McMahill said the shooting originated on the fourth floor of the building. Metropolitan and university police immediately responded, McMahill said, with two university police detectives engaging and ultimately killing Polito outside of Beam Hall. Polito was struck multiple times by gunfire.

“These two detectives are heroes,” the university police chief, Adam Garcia, said at the press conference. “They risked their lives in order to save countless others, and as the sheriff pointed out, what could have been a bloodbath.”

McMahill said Polito brought 11 magazines to the scene with him, and nine loaded magazines were found on Polito after the shooting. Polito was armed with a Taurus 9 mm handgun, the sheriff said.

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Police do not know the sequence of the shootings or who was shot first, but the victim who was shot on the fifth floor was the injured victim who is at Sunrise Hospital. Two deceased victims were located on the third floor, and one deceased victim was located on the fourth floor.

“While we navigate this difficult period, we will unite. We will support one another, and we will honor the memory of those who we lost,” Garcia said. “And by doing so, we will create that Rebel Strong spirit.”