Police responding to the scene of a deadly mass shooting at the University of Nevada Las Vegas earlier this month initially mistook the gunman as a bystander and yelled at him to evacuate the building, officer body cam video shows.
According to the Independent, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police (LVMP) discovered they had captured the shooter on camera, with the images hidden within more than five hours of body cam footage from Dec. 6. When they urged Anthony Polito, 67, to get out of the building, the officers were reportedly unaware that he was the suspect alleged to have shot four people, three of them fatally.
The footage, which was reviewed by the Independent, shows two LVMP officers climbing the stairs to a second-floor walkway, guns drawn, in the university's business school building. The ground floor is visible.
Polito was wearing a long black trench coat and was pictured very briefly walking calmly thorough the building, the outlet reported.
As Polito looks up at the officers, one shouts, "Get out! Get out!" and the officer's body cam turns the other way for a few seconds before turning back to find Polito gone.
Only one of Polito's hands was visible in the footage, according to the Independent, with no indication of a gun.
On Thursday, Clark County Undersheriff Andrew Walsh told The Associated Press it seemed the two officers had no idea they had just encountered the gunman.
"They don't have a description of the shooter at the time, and they know there are other police resources on the first floor," he said.
Authorities said Polito walked out of the business school building about a minute after the body cam video was taken and was killed in a firefight with university police officers.
The three professors Polito killed on campus were Naoko Takemaru, 69; Cha Jen "Jerry" Chang, 64; and Patricia Navarro Velez, 39. A 38-year-old unidentified visiting professor was also wounded, but is reportedly now in stable condition.
A career college professor before the mass shooting, Polito had reportedly applied for a job at UNLV but had been rejected for the position. At a press conference earlier this month, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Polito had been "struggling financially," though he did not confirm it as a motive for the shootings.
Polito also had a "list of people he was seeking," which included faculty from East Carolina University; police said they have contacted everyone on the list to ensure they were safe.
Police said they will release additional body cam footage in the coming weeks.