Las Vegas police began to release body-camera footage of their response to the UNLV shooting that left three professors dead and a fourth wounded.
Wednesday’s release, uploaded to the Metropolitan Police Department’s YouTube page, is one of several releases expected as the investigation continues, the agency wrote in a letter responding to a Las Vegas Review-Journal public records request.
“The process of searching of searching, reviewing, redacting and uploading videos is very time-consuming, so video will be released in batches as it is available for release,” the letter said.
Police noted in the letter that a report being prepared by its homicide unit would follow the videos’ release. Dozens of recordings of 911 calls were released earlier this month.
Panic erupted at UNLV the morning of Dec. 6 when Anthony Polito, 67, showed up to the school’s Beam Hall and began unloading 9mm rounds with a Taurus handgun.
Patricia Navarro Velez, 39; Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang, 64, and Naoko Takemaru, 69, were killed in the shooting, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.
The fourth faculty member was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said. Officials have not updated the victim’s condition since the shooting.
Police said Nevada higher education institutions, including UNLV, had turned Polito down for a job.
The shooting, which lasted about 10 minutes before Polito was gunned down by two UNLV police officers, triggered a massive active-shooter response, and calls by the school to “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.”
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Polito was armed with about 150 bullets and 11 gun magazines.
Police later found a “target list” in Polito’s Henderson apartment, and learned that he had mailed 22 letters to faculty at UNLV and East Carolina University, where he had taught for several years.
At least one of the letters intercepted by investigators contained an “unknown white powder substance” determined to be harmless, police said.
None of the shooting victims was named on the “target list,” police said.
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