(LAS VEGAS) — The deceased suspect in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting has been identified as Anthony Polito, 67, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, sources said.
Polito was armed with a handgun during Wednesday’s on-campus attack in which three people were killed, authorities said.
Sources said investigators have now determined that the victims killed were faculty or staff, not students. That suggests to detectives that the rampage may not have been random, but may have been an attack that targeted certain people because of some sort of previous relationship or interactions, according to a source.
The suspect was killed in a shootout with police detectives who responded to the scene, authorities said. The gunman fired on police, which is what led them to shoot him, according to preliminary investigative information.
Polito earned a master of business administration at Duke University in 1991, and he received a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Georgia in 2002, according to the universities.
In 2001, Polito started working as an assistant professor at East Carolina University in the College of Business’ Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, according to the university. He resigned from ECU in 2017 as a tenured associate professor.
A law enforcement official briefed on the probe said an apartment in Henderson, Nevada — believed to be the shooter’s home — was being searched Wednesday night.
Detectives have also retrieved the suspect’s phone and are now feverishly examining its contents for clues about what motivated the killer to mount his alleged attack.
Police are also combing his professional writings to determine whether something in those texts could shed light on the events that occurred on the UNLV campus.
ABC News’ Jenny Wagnon Courts and Kate Holland contributed to this report.
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