Las Vegas police bodycam footage shows chaotic moments after UNLV shooting

Body camera video released Wednesday depicted the swift Las Vegas police response amid the chaotic moments after a gunman walked onto the UNLV campus and killed three professors and injured another.

Uploaded to the Metropolitan Police Department’s YouTube page in three parts, the videos are part of several releases authorities said were expected as an investigation into the Dec. 6 shooting continues.

The first video, an hour and 11 minutes long, started from inside a police vehicle as an officer drives to campus and a dispatcher relays information from 911 calls.

Multiple people were heard screaming after shots were fired, the dispatcher said, before saying that the shooting occurred at Beam Hall and giving a possible suspect description as a white male with a heavy build.

The officers entered the building moments after arriving on campus as alarms blared.

“When we first got here, there was tons of shooting, and he hadn’t come out yet,” one officer said, referring to the shooter.

Panic erupted at UNLV late that morning when Anthony Polito, 67, 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 their condition since the shooting.

“We have a victim being driven out to Maryland Parkway,” an officer said into his police radio. “We need medical there.”

After one officer yelled “come with us!,” several officers rushed into Beam Hall.

‘Victim down’

In the body camera video released Wednesday, an officer reported finding a victim on the third floor of Beam Hall who had suffered gunshot injuries.

“We have a second victim down on the third floor,” he shouted.

As a sergeant approached UNLV, an officer on radio talked about putting together an “active shooter team” that would “make our way to the suspect and take him out.”

The shooting lasted about 10 minutes before Polito was gunned down by two UNLV police officers.

About 10 minutes into the video, an officer on the radio reported hearing gunfire.

“We’ve got one down now,” an officer said.

“We’ve got one down, WMA (white male adult), black jacket,” another officer said.

Still unsure whether a second shooter was on campus, police warned of potential crossfire as they continued to enter the building.

Police said Nevada higher education institutions, including UNLV, had turned Polito down for a job.

About halfway through the first video, several armed officers stood inside Beam Hall asking each other about the location of the suspect.

“Who’s making the decisions up here?” one asked.

The officers exited Beam Hall down a stairwell. A group of officers gathered outside nearby Wright Hall which was being cleared. An officer said radio traffic had come across earlier about activity in another building other than Beam Hall.

“That’s going to be one of those echo calls,” another officer responded. “Just like on Oct. 1.”

In other portions of the videos, officers could be seen attempting to kick down doors inside Beam Hall in search of a gunman.

In an interview on KNPR’s State of Nevada on Wednesday, Sheriff Kevin McMahill pointed to “lessons” that Metro learned after both the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre and the UNLV shooting.

McMahill said police did not have keys to access locked rooms.

“So we had to do a tremendous amount of breaching of those doors to make sure we didn’t have another shooter inside where students and staff and faculty were locked down,” he said. “And that’s traumatic in and of itself to hear somebody breaking in the door. That’s something we’re keenly interested in looking at is how can we do this differently the next time as well.”

Police have said that a report being prepared by its homicide unit would follow the release of video footage. Dozens of recordings of 911 calls from the shooting were released earlier this month.

‘Suspect down’

At one point, apparently after Polito had been killed by University police, an officer appeared to believe that a victim was behind a door that officers could not enter.

“We better not have lost him, dude, because they got one suspect down. That door we couldn’t breach, there was somebody in there injured for sure,” the officer said.

McMahill has 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 were named on the “target list,” police said.

The second video released Wednesday — at more than two hours and 45 minutes — showed a group of Metro officers enter Beam Hall through the front entrance, then sweep through the hallways on the second floor before meeting up with UNLV police officers and going up the stairwell to sweep through each floor of the building, checking that closed doors are locked and searching rooms with open or unlocked doors.

Officers asked those inside to walk calmly out of the classrooms and offices with their hands raised.

“Stay close,” one officer could be heard saying on video. “You guys are almost out. You guys are fine.”

Soon after, students could be heard yelling for help from within one of the classrooms.

While police escorted students and faculty from the building, several officers tried to kick down or ram doors.

At another point, an officer described the confusion of entering Beam Hall.

“We started going just to the sound of gunshots … yeah, go to the sound of gunshots, but everything’s echoing everywhere,” the officer said.

The third video, at an hour and 48 minutes, showed police clearing classrooms and offices and ended as armed officers in full tactical gear filed down a stairwell.

The officer wearing the body camera video was heard saying: “I think there’s one victim on four … two on three that I know of.”

Another officer asked: “Do we know if it’s male or female?”

“I’m not 100 percent sure,” the first officer said. “We’re going to have to walk it again because we had to bust every door.”

Staff reporters Mark Credico and Brett Clarkson contributed to this story. Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites. Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com.