By KEN RITTER (Associated Press)
In the video, a campus police officer is seen taking cover behind a patrol vehicle to avoid getting shot, and then he shoots the gunman outside a building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This video is part of the newly released footage which includes the deadly incident that resulted in the death of three professors and serious injury of a fourth last December.
The violent confrontation, captured by campus surveillance cameras, put an end to what authorities described as 10 minutes of terror caused by a 67-year-old former business professor from North Carolina. His applications to teach at UNLV had been turned down.
Anthony Polito, the gunman, had a legally bought 9 mm handgun, nine bullet magazines, and a list of names as targets, although none of the victims were on that list, the police reported.
The university has released 20 hours of footage from campus security and officer body cameras, as well as more than an hour of 911 calls made to campus police.
The sounds of gunfire that killed three people in upper floors of the five-story business school caused panic among those in the nearby Student Union. The video shows a campus police officer arriving at the business school building 78 seconds after the shooting.
University Vice President of Public Safety Adam Garcia stated, “It is difficult to listen to these recordings and watch the videos and not reflect on the tragic events that day,” in connection with the release of the material in response to public records requests.
Early in the more than one hour of 911 recordings, two gunshots can be heard, and there is a call from a father whose daughter was hiding in a classroom.
The father asks, “Is there an active shooter there?”
The male dispatcher replies, confirming the presence of the police at the scene and advising the father to instruct his daughter to stay where she is.
New footage shows campus security officers quickly entering the business school building while Las Vegas police gather near the Student Union at the center of the campus, as students move in the opposite direction.
Video from a parking lot depicts the gunman exiting a black car wearing a black trench coat, retrieving something from the passenger compartment, and then walking calmly towards the business school building.
Another video shows officers assisting a severely injured professor who emerged from the same building and then collapsed on a sidewalk behind a patrol car.
UNLV President Keith Whitfield informed the university community that the visiting professor who was injured is recovering and receiving rehabilitation, and has been discharged from the hospital. The professor has not been named.
In December, the Las Vegas police began releasing videos and audio recordings which showed officers from across southern Nevada spending extended periods searching campus buildings, releasing students and faculty members in groups, before confirming that the gunman had acted alone and there was no additional threat.
The shooting took place just a few miles from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the October 1, 2017, massacre at the Mandalay Bay resort, where a gunman fired from windows into a crowd at an outdoor music festival. Sixty people died, and hundreds were wounded or injured.
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Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat and Ty O’
