We have an active shooter. We have an after shoot. It's go ahead
of me, Claire. That's a mass casualty Welcome to Active Shooter, a
podcast that covers the whys, the hows, and the aftermath of active shooter
and mass casualty events. I have an active shooter in the building. A
checking call says they are big attacks. We got Josh Flier at four fifteen
as broaching ninety one sound like, oh, I'm at a fire. Active
shooter. It's of an active shooter, active shooter, active shooter in mass
casualty incidents. Thank you for listening. You are listening to Active Shooter,
a podcast that may contain adult themes, explicit language, and graphic depictions of
violence. Portions of this show may be traumatic for those under eighteen. Listener
discretion is advised. This is an NBC News special report. Here's Lesterholt.
Good afternoon. We're coming back on the air with breaking news about that shooting
at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. NBC News is reporting, according
to law enforcement sources, that there are multiple fatalities and police say the suspect
is also dead. There is, as you might understand, a massive police
presence on and around campus. There is even a ground stop in place at
the airport, which is virtually next door. Now the university, with an
enrollment of about thirty thousand students, has closed for the rest of the day.
The UNLV shooting happened a mere three miles away from the location of the
deadliest mass shooting in our country system. The entire country watched the shooting at
the Route ninety one Harvest festival at Mandalay Bay unfold before their horrified eyes.
Now, six years and nearly two months later, we've experienced hundreds of shootings
that have captured the nation's attention in the worst possible way. The shooting at
UNLV was as unexpected as it was unexplainable. The shooter obviously had an issue
with the university that he attacked, yet the issue was clear to no one
except perhaps the shooter. We don't know precisely how planned or organized the shooter
was, but in the mere ten minutes he reigned terror over the Beam Hall
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he managed to cause a lifetime
of trauma and unease for thousands of impacted individuals. Today's case is dedicated to
the lives and memories of the three injured survivors and the three shooting victims.
Patricia pat navarrov as Cha, Jann, Jerry Chung, and Naoko Takemaru.
Active Shooter. The podcast is a High five Holly production and I'm your host
JT. If you've listened to our prior episodes, you know that the Active
Shooter podcast team has taken the no notoriety pledge and we will not be sharing
the real name of the shooters that we cover. We will be giving the
shooters a pseudonym and refer to them by that name throughout the episode. This
will help in clearing up any confusion in the story while remaining true to our
pledge and not naming the shooter by their actual name. We will refer to
today's shooter as Aaron. Wednesday, tomb six, twenty twenty three was a
typical winter day on the University of Nevada Las Vegas or UNLV campus, located
in Paradise, Nevada. The campus was a bustling one with about thirty thousand
students attending. The morning was pleasant, with the temperature in the high sixties.
The day was slightly overcast, with cloud cover blanketing the sky before opening
back up to offer glimpses of pure blue. The UNLV campus was busy with
classes in full spring on that Wednesday morning. A little after eleven am,
sixty seven year old Arran drove to his local post office, where he proceeded
to mail out twenty two separate letters, each one addressed to a different university
official and each bearing no return address. From the post office, Arin drove
to the Frank and Estella Beam Hall, arriving at approximately eleven thirty am.
The hall was an instructional facility which also happened to be the main building for
the Lee Business School at UNLV. Aaron parked his two thousand and seven Lexus
and at eleven thirty one am, security footage captured Aaron walking around his car
to the passenger side, where he opened the door and pulled out a nine
millimeter Taurus PT ninety two semi automatic pistol. He looked closely at the firearm
before inserting it into the waistband of his pants and slammed the car door shut.
Aaron walked purposely towards Beam Hall. He entered the hall at around eleven
forty five am. And strode towards the stairs and up to the fourth floor,
where he walked to the end of the hallway and backed down another staircase.
Aarin wasn't just brandishing a gun, though, he opened fire immediately and
continued to shoot aimlessly and randomly. Petrified students hearing the gunshots began to run
and hide. Aaron paced several floors, causing panic, hysteria, and confusion.
Victims and survivors were shot on the third, fourth and fifth floor the
hall, including thirty nine year old professor of Accounting Information Systems Patricia pat Navarro
Valez. Pat, a wife and dedicated mother of four, had studied Spanish
and biology for undergrad before pursuing a master's degree in accounting from Bowling Green State
University. She then worked in risk assurance at pw C also known as Price
Waterhouse Coopers, which is an audit and assurance, consulting and tax service firm.
During her employment at p w C, Pat earned her PhD at the
University of Central Florida. Pat always knew that she was meant to teach and
mentor, and that is precisely what she did, making a powerful impact on
the lives of many of her students. The brilliant and caring woman who love
to cook and spend time with family will be deeply missed by many that she
touched along the way. The first nine one one call was placed at about
eleven forty five am. The caller reported a shooter in the beam hall at
UNLV. Because there were several law enforcement units nearby. When they were dispatched,
the police response time was immediate. Police responded within one minute, like
fun, I'm hiding under my desk, make a worse walk. Have you
heard anything else before or after? I heard some screaming. Okay, who
else is in the office with you? Me? My boss is working for
all. Let's do it. Just your s. Meanwhile, as the shooter
was moving up and down from one floor to the next, one student reported
that they and approximately a dozen other classmates were inside of the journalism building when
they heard the shooting. They barricaded the door as a steady stream of alerts
began pouring into their respective cell phones. The alerts were brief quote, evacuate
to a safe place and run, hide, fight. The students didn't know
exactly where the shooter was, so they each used what may have been their
last minutes to call family and say they loved them. The fear that such
an act induces is utterly immeasurable. Another victim who was killed with sixty four
year old cha Jan Jerry Chang, a management information systems professor at UNLV since
two thousand and one. Jerry earned his bachelor's degree in oceanography from the National
Taiwan Ocean University in May of nineteen eighty one, before completing his master's degree
in computer science from Central Michigan University May of nineteen eighty six, Jerry was
finished pursuing education, though so he continued, earning an MBA from Texas University
in May of nineteen eighty seven. He studied his way to yet another Masters
and Management of Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh in July of nineteen ninety
five. Jerry achieved yet another educational milestone in June of two thousand and one
when he earned a PhD in Management of Information Systems from the University of Pittsburgh.
Doctor Jerry Chong taught an assortment of classes including data communications, database management,
and database design and implementation at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Doctor
Chong's students thought it was funny and endearing that their beloved professor didn't own a
cell phone. He would always say that he had a phone in his office
and at home, and besides, he believed people spent far too much time
on their cell phones, neglecting those around them in the process. It wasn't
the way the doctor preferred to live, and his brilliance and simple way of
living will be missed by all. Inside of a nearby building, another student
heard shots being fired, about six shots in total. She and the other
students she was with all hid in utter silence inside of their classroom, lights
switched off and the door locked tight. Back inside of Beamhall, thirty nine
year old Naoko Takemaru had been shot and killed. The compassionate professor cared deeply
for her students and was known to insist on an open door policy. She
genuinely wanted each one to succeed and would do whatever it took to assist in
that process. Naoko was in her twentieth year with university, after having earned
two master's degrees, one from Michigan State University and one from Monterey Institute of
International Studies. She earned a PhD from Claremont Graduate University. Naoko began her
American dream as a foreign exchange student in nineteen seventy four, and the treasured
Professor will be dearly missed. Elsewhere in the hall, as sociology professor was
listening to a student give a presentation when the screen inside the classroom flashed with
an alert of an active shooter. Within moments, all students and faculty received
the same alert to their cell phones and emails. We were in the student
union on the second floor and we heard at the business building, the VH
on the second floor there was an active shooter. We found out cops were
on site and we just sheltered in place until we were evacuated, and it
took about maybe thirty minutes to get us evacuated. Upon their arrival, police
entered the hall searching for the shooter. When they encountered Aaron, gunfire was
immediately exchanged and police neutralized the shooter. It was later discovered that Aaron carried
eleven magazines which contained over one hundred fifty rounds, but he had only nine
loaded magazines on his person. Inside of the hall. An alarm started going
off during the shooting, which caused serious confusion, but after hearing someone shouting
that there was a gun, students and faculty faced the terrible realization that this
wasn't a fire drill or even a real fire. This was a shooting attack,
and no one knew who was next. The entire shooting lasted about ten
minutes from start to finish. About eight minutes after the initial nine to one
one call, the university posted on their x formerly known as Twitter account that
police responded to reports of gunfire and were urging students and faculty at Beam Hall
to quote evacuate to a safe area. The event's center at the university was
established as a reunification center along with the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention
Center, and an emergency hotline was implemented. Subsequent investigation showed that Aarin carried
a list of individuals that he was seeking out during the shooting. None of
those on his list were shot or killed, and police were able to intercept
one of the twenty two letters Aaron made before the shooting. There was an
unidentified, unknown white powder inside the envelope. Later testing determined that the powder
was indeed harmless, but the intent to invoke fear was very much successful.
Eventually, law enforcement was able to collect each of the twenty two letters,
which seemed to call random professors or teachers degrading names and contained rambling thoughts of
nonsense. One letter included the line quote good professors at top schools teach from
their mind lecture and lecture notes, only dumbasses instruct by reading off textbook pages
and slides, while another read quote, you think your shit don't stink,
but really your stupid and incompetent most of your career. You're just a huge,
evil fuck up. There were many other confusing, garrulous musings that filled
the pages of each letter. Aarin was born in North Carolina in nineteen fifty
six. He worked for major corporations, including giants like Volvo, Brown and
Root, and Kellogg before he decided to pursue education. Aaron earned a master's
of Business administration at Duke University in nineteen ninety one, and then went on
to achieve a PhD in business administration from the University of Georgia in two thousand
and two. While he was studying for his PhD, Aaron began working as
an assistant professor at East Carolina University in the College of Businesses Department of Marketing
and Supply Chain Management. In two thousand and one. Aarin was a tenure
associate professor of business at ECU in Greenville, North Carolina, from two thousand
and one to twenty seventeen. When he left ECU, Aarin accepted a position
as an adjunct professor of business at Roseman University of Health Sciences in Henderson,
Nevada, from two thusenty eighteen to twenty twenty two. During the time Aaron
lived in Nevada, he applied numerous times at UNLV and even several colleges throughout
the state. Erin was in dire straits financially, and he was served in
eviction notice which had been prominently taped to the front of his apartment door.
His LinkedIn claimed that he was a quote semi retired professor and noted, quote
the greatest gifts and takeaways I possess from my many years within higher education or
the many kind and positive comments students made regarding my instructions and disposition toward them.
The page was removed after the shooting, though Erin also maintained a personal
website which detailed his travels and claimed that he made quote more than two dozen
trips to Vegas over the last fifteen years. While he claimed not to gamble,
Erin was clearly captivated by Sin City. Several students even claimed that their
professor seemed to have a sort of obsession with Las Vegas and an unrelated preoccupation
with student feedback. One student said that Aaron was transfixed with Las Vegas,
even spending the first month of the semester talking about the syllabus, while the
balance of the semester, Aaron spoke almost exclusively about his time in the city
he seemed to love so dearly. Aaron talked about the hotels he visited,
shops he frequented, shows he watched, and even spoke of those whom he
visited when there. The same student claimed quote, if you can imagine a
college class where you just relive someone's vacation like that was kind of the class.
It was all we talked about from the start of the class to the
end of it, and further said that class was the most odd and unconventional
one he'd ever taken. Aaron had a graduate assistant who worked for him for
about six months in the fall of twenty eleven. The student's name was TJ
Strickland, and TJ later stated that Aaron was quote eccentric, but overall an
incredibly nice guy. He said that Aarin was strict about his organization and email
systems and expected every everything to be done in a very specific manner. If
you didn't get it right the first time, or the second time, or
anytime, frankly, it needed to be completely redone. He was very particular
to the point of obsessively compulsive. One such example is when TJ had to
print assignments and tests for students. If the tests weren't stapled in the exact
fashion that Aaron wanted, everything had to be thrown away and done again,
ensuring that the staple was placed just so. There was a shooting scare previously
in twenty eleven, but it turned out that the supposed shooter was only carrying
an umbrella. Aaron later gave TJ an umbrella as a graduation present as a
joke, which never appeared to bother TJ, and indeed he was completely shocked
when he learned that Aaron was the shooter. TJ had always believed he was
a kind man who wasn't capable of such a horrific act. Another of Aaron's
former students from ECU claimed that she was a mentee of Aeron's. She was
taking online classes with him, but before long, Aerin started making advances towards
the woman, which made her feel very uncomfortable, leaving her feeling almost preyed
upon. One day, when she was physically on campus, she found herself
in an elevator with Erin. When she mentioned being one of his students,
Erin went out of his way to assist her in landing an important internship.
He even helped write her resume and cover letters. However, after he helped,
Aaron reached out to the student nearly every single day for the whole semester,
and he even tried to give her gifts. By the end of the
first semester, the woman was invited to Las Vegas with Erin, and it
was then that she chose to cut off contact. She was incredibly clear that
Erin never touched her in appropriately, nor did he act out after she ceased
contact, but he still left her feeling uneasy. He dressed professionally and often
wore a very heavy cologne. The woman felt like Erin was maybe a bit
of a loner or even lonely, which made him sometimes get a little too
personal with her, as if he just needed someone to talk to. Other
students often claimed that Aaron was obsessed with his popularity and reviews on ratemyprofessors dot
Com and seemed almost addicted to reading the comments that students left, actively trying
to guess which students made each comment. Classes at UNLV were canceled for the
balance of the week following the shooting. Finals were scheduled for the following week,
but on December eighth, twenty twenty three, the university president, Keith
Whitfield, made an announcement that in person classes would be canceled for the remainder
of the twenty twenty three year due to the physical and emotional trauma the entire
campus experienced. On the day of the shooting, NHL team Las Vegas Golden
Knights stood in a moment of silence before the game versus the Saint Louis Blues
at Tmobile Arena. Another four days after the shooting, the Golden Knights again
honored the UNLV shooting victims and survivors in a ceremony before the game against the
San Jose Sharks. During walkins, the Golden Knights players wore t shirts that
honored the victims and their families, and they wore special decals on their game
helmets as well. The National Finals rodeo was scheduled for December seventh, twenty
twenty three, but the kickoff event was canceled and a moment of silence was
held on December eighth, honoring the victims. On December tenth, twenty twenty
three, the Las Vegas Raiders observed a moment of silence before their game against
the Minnesota Vikings. The UNLV Foundation established scholarships in honor of each of the
three shooting victims that were murdered at the hands of one of their very own
peers. We all have the unique ability to help prevent such a catastrophic event
from happening if we keep our eyes and ears open and never hesitate to report
when something or some one just doesn't seem right. With the delicate balance of
mental health reform, education, active shooter training, and common sense gun laws,
we may one day realize the dream, the dream that there will be
no more active shootings. We pray that love will prevail over hate. Too
many have died. We should say to ourselves not one more. In the
meantime, we urge our listeners to stay aware of your surroundings and keep in
touch with your loved ones. If you see something, say something, you
never know how many lives you'll be saving. Thank you for listening to today's
episode of Active Shooter the Podcast. Remember, if you see something, say
something, there's no telling how many lives you may be saving. A big
thank you to Darren Curtis, who composed some of the songs on our show.
You can find him online at www dot Darrencurtis music dot com. Make
sure to check us out on social media. You can find us on Facebook
at Active Shooter the Podcast and on Twitter at podcast Active. Thank you and
be safe.