REVEALED: University of Nevada gunman Anthony Polito, 67, was armed with 9mm handgun and 11 loaded magazines: Shooter had a ‘target list’ – but none of the three people he killed were on it

A business professor who shot and killed three faculty members at the University of Nevada was in possession of a legally purchased 9mm handgun and 11 loaded magazines at the time of his death.

Anthony Polito, 67, died Wednesday in a shootout with police after killing two teachers and a third unidentified man.

Polito was rejected for a job on campus and sent letters filled with white powder to other colleges that rejected him, it turned out.

Before the shooting, Polito sent 22 letters to university professors across the U.S., but the contents of those letters were not immediately known, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Wednesday. Officials were able to intercept some of the letters sent, and the first letter opened contained “an unknown white powdery substance,” McMahill said.

The sheriff said police have contacted everyone on the suspect list except one person who was on the flight.

“None of the individuals on the target list were victims,” McMahill said.

As part of the probe, investigators searched an apartment in nearby Henderson, Nevada, late Wednesday and seized several electronic devices, including Polito’s cellphone, one of the officials said. They also found a “last will and testament” type document.

The sheriff said Polito applied for “several” positions at various colleges and universities in Nevada and was rejected each time.

From 2001 to 2017, he was a professor in North Carolina, working in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at East Carolina University.

He retired in January 2017 as a tenured assistant professor.

One of his former students said Polito often talked about his regular visits to Las Vegas and his love of the casino.

Paul Whittington, now 33, told the AP that Polito began talking during class about his many trips to Las Vegas.

According to Whittington, Polito told his students that he visited them twice a year, staying in different hotels and visiting different clubs.

“He was very, very, very fixated on Las Vegas,” Whittington said. “I think he just really enjoyed going there.”

Whittington also said he was thin-skinned and vindictive.

Polito told Whittington’s class that he remembered the faces of students who gave him bad reviews in the annual anonymous end-of-year survey, saying he was sure who they were and where they sat, pointing to seats in the classroom.

“He always talked about the negative feedback he received,” said Whittington, who introduced Polito to an operations management course in 2014.

“He didn’t get much, but there was always one student every semester or at least one student in every class who gave negative feedback. And he became fixated on them.”

On Thursday, the first victims were Patricia Navarro-Velez, 39, an employee in the university’s accounting department, and longtime professor Cha Jang “Jerry” Chang, 64.

According to the coroner, Chang died from a gunshot wound to the head, and Navarro-Velez died from multiple gunshot wounds. 8NewsNow.

The third victim was also a teacher and has reportedly been identified. Their names will not be released until their next of kin are informed.

The shooting took place on the fourth floor of the business school.

After opening fire, the gunman walked to several other floors of the business school before he was killed in a shootout with two university police detectives outside a building that is adjacent to the university’s student union, UNLV Police Chief Adam Garcia said.

In a statement, UNLV President Keith Whitfield said the mass shooting was “the most difficult day in the history of our university” and said he was “heartbroken for the families, friends and loved ones of Dr. Navarro and Dr. Chang.”

Navarro-Velez and Chang were killed in a 40-minute rampage carried out by 67-year-old professor Tony Polito, who did not work at UNLV but reportedly applied for a job there and was rejected.

Navarro-Velez was a mother of four, said her former University of Puerto Rico professor David Correa. Las Vegas Review Magazine.

She was first identified in an Instagram post shared by the California All-Stars Las Vegas Cheer Gym, which said: “Our hearts are broken as we share the devastating news of the loss of our beloved family member Cali in yesterday’s senseless shooting.”

“Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to the Navarro-Velez family during this unimaginably difficult time,” the statement said.

According to her university profile, Navarro-Velez received her Ph.D. She received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Central Florida and focused her studies on “cybersecurity exposure and enforcement, internal control weakness exposure, and data analytics.”

Chang was a business professor who had been at UNLV for more than 20 years and a longtime respected faculty member specializing in management information systems.

A former student praised the professor on an education rating website following news of his death, saying they were “lucky” to study with him and “wish he had not been taken away from us so soon.”

“We respect all the hard work and dedication you have put into UNLV and the MIS department, we thank you for everything you have done for us,” they added.

A fourth person was also wounded during the disturbance but is in stable condition, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

As the carnage broke out, a huge number of police, including tactical teams, were seen scrambling towards the college after an alert was issued to students warning them to “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT”.

Less than an hour after the alarm was raised, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced that the suspect had died, and footage showed terrified students being gradually escorted out of buildings across campus.

As of Thursday afternoon, UNLV had shuttered all buildings and services except the Student Wellness Center and dining hall, and officials say the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

In a statement after Navarro-Velez and Chang were named as the first victims, UNLV President Keith Whitfield said the shooting was “the most difficult day in our university’s history.”

“Words are still difficult to find as we are just beginning to process the grief, loss, anger and fear surrounding Wednesday’s tragic campus shooting that claimed the lives of three of our beloved faculty members. Another teacher remains hospitalized,” the statement said.

“We have now learned that two of the deceased victims—Patricia Navarro-Velez and Cha Jang “Jerry” Chang—were faculty members at our Lee School of Business. The third victim, also a UNLV faculty member, will be identified once next of kin are notified.

‘Doctor. Navarro-Velez, an assistant professor of accounting, has dedicated her career to teaching the next generation of accountants. She joined UNLV nearly five years ago as a professor of accounting, where she primarily taught accounting information systems.

‘Doctor. Chang is a longtime professor of management information systems, spending more than 20 years of his academic career teaching generations of students at the UNLV Lee School of Business.

“My heart breaks for the families, friends and loved ones of Dr. Navarro and Dr. Chang, and for all the victims of this senseless act of violence that has affected so many people physically and emotionally.”

The UNLV campus was put on immediate lockdown as police hunted for the gunman, and Harry Reid International Airport, located about two miles from the shooting site, briefly suspended flights for security reasons.

Student John Harris heard what he later realized was a gunshot as he got out of his car in the parking garage of an on-campus apartment complex. In the elevator, Harris said he received an emergency text message from the university.

“I wasn’t sure what to believe,” said Harris, 21, who ended up taking refuge in a friend’s dorm.

He told the AP: “But when I went outside and saw a crowd of police in the student union parking lot, I realized I heard a gunshot and this was not a drill.”

A witness to Wednesday’s attack told Fox News that he heard several shots ring out on campus before police evacuated them.

“(I heard) boom, boom, boom, more shots,” she said. “So I ran into the basement and I heard gunshots coming from outside, I heard the police, and then the police just evacuated me.

“I held my hands above my head and yes, I heard a lot of shots. I didn’t know how many shooters there were. I didn’t really know anything.”

UNLV English professor Vincent Perez told MSNBC that he heard seven or eight loud gunshots “one after another” as he looked out over the campus from the building’s balcony.

“We realized this was an actual shooting and there was active shooting on campus,” he said.

“It just sounded like a powerful weapon – just an echo, an echo that… makes you realize this is someone who wants to kill people.”