GREENVILLE, N.C — Police say the gunman in Wednesday’s shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was a professor who tried getting a job at the school but was unsuccessful.

Anthony Polito, 67, killed three faculty members and critically wounded another before police killed him in a shootout, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday.

Polito was a longtime professor at East Carolina University, where he taught at the College of Business from 2001 to 2017.

He got his MBA from Duke in 1991.

Hunter Peyton, who graduated from ECU in 2012, took a supply chain management class with Polito in 2010 and says he never saw any signs that his former professor could harm anyone.

“He did a really good job relaying real-life experiences to make it, you know, very real-world-applicable lessons we could take from the book to real life,” he said.

It was easy to succeed in Polito’s class, Peyton said.

“If you went to class, paid attention just a little bit, he made it really easy to get an A. All of my friends who have taken him basically say the same thing,” he said.

Peyton says that once he was late for an exam, and Polito was concerned.

“He actually got a hold of my mother, who was on my emergency contact, was making sure I was OK and wanted me to come to class to take the exam,” he said.

Peyton says Las Vegas was always top of mind for Polito.

“He always talked about going to Las Vegas,” he said. “He traveled there multiple times a year. He just really loved the whole Vegas experience.” 

Polito, who was living in Henderson, Nevada, had been denied jobs at several colleges in the state, police said Thursday.

He had a list of targets that included faculty members at East Carolina as well as at UNLV, police said.

Peyton says that any time there’s a mass shooting, it’s heartbreaking, but that this takes it to another level.

“To have it happen with some sort of connection, some sort of tie here, but especially someone who I was actually in the presence of is really chilling,” Peyton said.