UNLV gunman Anthony Polito mistaken for bystander during shooting: bodycam

Cops responding to the mass shooting at the University of Nevada Las Vegas mistook the deranged gunman for a bystander and urged him to flee — shortly before a shootout with cops outside, newly released bodycam footage shows.

“Get out, get out!” one Las Vegas cop is heard shouting at disgruntled professor Anthony Polito from a second-floor balcony at the school after the horrific Dec. 6 massacre.

Polito, 67 — wearing a long, black trench coat with one hand visible at his side — said nothing as he briskly walked by and headed for the door and into his final shootout with police.

The split-second sighting is buried in more than five hours of bodycam video released by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department this week from the massacre that left three UNLV professors dead and one other wounded.

The footage shows cops swarming the campus shortly after shots rang out around 11:45 a.m., combing through stairwells and hallways looking for the active shooter.

“Careful, careful,” one cop says. “Don’t rush it.

“Watch the doors,” he said as they moved down one hallway as alarms blare in the background. “Keep looking at the doors… He’s still active. Be careful. He’s still active.”

At one point a cop reports that “the suspect is down,” but the search of the massive building continued, with staffers and students periodically found cowering in classrooms.

During one grim exchange, an officer tells another, “I have bodies in here, like a lot. Every f–king floor.”

Police said three UNLV educators — Naoko Takemaru, 69; Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang, 64; and Patricia Navarro Velez, 39 — were killed during the shooting rampage.

The 38-year-old professor who was wounded has not been identified.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Polito was armed with a 9 mm handgun and nine magazines with more than 150 rounds when he stormed onto the campus.

The shooter had been turned down for a teaching position at the school and had been “struggling financially” — and had a “target list” of UNLV faculty members, WPLG-TV News reported.

County Undersheriff Andrew Walsh acknowledged to the Associated Press that cops had a brush encounter with Polito while searching the campus building but had no way of knowing he was the killer.

“They don’t have a description of the shooter at the time,” Walsh said. “And they know there are other police sources on the first floor.”

With Post wires