LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The man who opened fire and killed three people on the UNLV campus had a list of targets and left a will before the shooting, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill revealed on Thursday.
At a press conference to share updates on the shooting, McMahill said the gunman, 67-year-old Anthony James Polito, applied for numerous positions at UNLV and other higher education institutions in Southern Nevada and was rejected for all of them.
He arrived on the UNLV campus Wednesday morning armed with a Taurus 9mm handgun and 11 loaded magazines, McMahill said. After the shooting, nine of those magazines were found on his person.
The handgun was legally purchased in 2022 and "at this point in the investigation we do not know how many rounds he has fired," McMahill added.
In their investigation of Poltio's possible motives, detectives found he had a list of people he was seeking on the school's campus.
Polito previously worked at Eastern Carolina University, and staff from that institution were included on his list, McMahill said. In the hours since the shooting, police were able to contact all but one of those people to make sure they were safe.
The evidence collected so far also indicates Polito was struggling financially, McMahill said. Officers who went to serve a search warrant at his Henderson apartment noticed an eviction notice on the door.
Investigators have also tracked down 22 letters Polito sent to university personnel across the country the morning of the shooting. Police who intercepted roughly 14,000 pieces of mail in an effort to track down the envelopes found that at least one contained an unknown white powder substance.
Police confirmed that the substance was found to be harmless.
Update: the white powder found inside envelopes mailed by the UNLV shooter was found to be harmless.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 8, 2023
That prompted LVMPD's ARMOR unit to be brought into the investigation. In the hours since McMahill spoke, law enforcement sources told ABC News the white substance was identified as talcum powder.
McMahill cautioned anyone in the academic community who receives "a letter with no return address that is taped" to proceed with caution and contact local authorities — especially if they work at UNLV or Eastern Carolina University.
McMahill also stressed that investigators believe Polito acted alone and police have "zero indication" of any other suspects at this time.
In an initial update on the investigation Wednesday night, McMahill credited law enforcement officers with stopping the shooting before more lives could be taken.
