Mourners gather at the home of Naoko Takemaru during a vigil Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Takemaru, a Japanese studies professor, was killed along with two other professors Wednesday by a gunman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024 | 12:19 p.m.
Bianca Hernandez
A neighbor is accused of burglarizing the home of a UNLV professor killed in a campus shooting and making online posts with the intent of selling stolen items, according to Metro Police.
The burglary was reported about 1:10 p.m. on Dec. 26 at a home in the 3900 block of Deer Haven Court, police said. The address coincides with the home of slain UNLV Associate Professor Naoko Takemaru.
Takemaru was one of three UNLV faculty members killed and one wounded on Dec. 6 when a gunman, 67-year-old Anthony Polito of Henderson, opened fire at Beam Hall, home to the university’s business school, according to police.
Metro said the suspect in the burglary, later identified as Bianca Hernandez, 30, was seen entering the professor’s home, removing objects and taking them to a nearby vehicle. She was gone before officers arrived, police said.
After detectives identified Hernandez as the suspect, a search warrant was executed at her house, also in the 3900 block of Deer Haven Court, police said. The street is a cul-de-sac with about a dozen houses.
Metro did not detail what, if anything, was recovered during the search. But detectives learned Hernandez had made online posts with the intent of selling the property taken during the burglary, police said.
Hernandez was taken into custody Tuesday and booked at the Clark County Detention Center on counts of residential burglary, buying, possessing or receiving stolen property and conspiracy to commit burglary, police said.
