The suspect killed in the shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is 67-year-old Anthony Polito, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Sources say Polito applied for a college professor position at UNLV, but was not hired. He has ties to North Carolina and Georgia, where he previously worked as a college professor.
Polito was armed with a handgun during Wednesday’s attack. Police say he was killed in a shootout with two police detectives who responded to the scene of an active shooting.
Detectives are working through the night and plan to continue their investigation throughout the night.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said an apartment in Henderson, Nevada – believed to be the shooter’s home – is currently being searched. Detectives have also recovered the suspect’s phone and are now combing through its contents for clues as to what might have motivated the killer to carry out the alleged attack on Wednesday.
Police are also examining her professional writings to determine if some of those texts may shed light on events that occurred on the UNLV campus.
Investigators have now determined that the victims killed were not students, but faculty or staff. This leads detectives to believe that the violence may not be random, but may be an attack in which certain people are targeted due to some type of previous relationship or interaction.
According to preliminary investigation information, the gunman fired at the police, prompting them to shoot him dead.