UNLV Shooter’s Chilling Ties to Cedar Falls

On Wednesday, December 6th a 67-year-old man opened fire at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and killed three people, injuring a fourth person, according to reports.

The victims were faculty members at the school; professors Patricia Navarro-Velez and Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang were killed in the attack. Officials have not yet released the name of the third victim. They plan on alerting the family before announcing it to the public, according to reports.

Local officials identified the suspect as Anthony Polito. Polito was killed after a shootout with police, reports say. 

Officials are sharing that he had a list of people he planned to target. The gunman was a longtime professor and had allegedly applied for jobs at different colleges all across Nevada. He was rejected every time.

This is still a developing story and authorities are trying to determine a motive for why he carried out this tragedy.

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The Cedar Falls Connection...

Polito was a career college professor and worked all across the country at various universities. According to his website, the suspect worked at East Carolina University, Roseman University of Health Sciences, the University of Georgia, and the University of Northern Iowa.

Reports claim that the man spent two years in Cedar Falls as a visiting instructor. He was hired in January of 2000 to teach a 12-hour load in the Spring and Fall. Polito taught in the College of Business Administration.

Officials confirm that he taught at the college through the Spring of 2001.

His website shows that he taught Introduction to Information Systems as well as Operations Management.

Once his time was over with the Cedar Falls college, Polito moved onto East Carolina University, reports say.

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