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Armed Suspect Surrounded at Arkansas State University, Officials Say

Police took a man at Arkansas State University into custody Thursday after the suspect allegedly drove onto campus with a weapon and crashed his vehicle.

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Elliott said Bartelt spoke with officers, but they could not understand what he was saying.

Bartelt is being held on a preliminary charge of aggravated assault for the Thursday incident, but Holmes says he could face more charges.

“He pointed at me and him and said it’s a personal problem we don’t want innocent lives involved in this”, said McPherson.

A gunman who prompted a lockdown at Arkansas State University is in custody, police confirmed shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday.

The first call of the incident happened around 1:32 Thursday afternoon.

“He was looking in the bed of his truck, we got a ways away and called police”, said McPherson. Officials kept the campus on lockdown as police examined the truck, Smith said. It wasn’t clear what was said in discussions, but Bartelt eventually threw the shotgun down and surrendered, Elliott said.

Channel 7 News has learned students are getting Campus Alert text messages that say, “Man with weapon is on east side of student union”. No injuries have been reported.

Bartelt told police he was on several psychiatric medications and painkillers, according to the report released Friday.

At 12:52 p.m. Wednesday, Bartelt wrote a Facebook post, assailing Administrative Law Judge John Goree of the federal Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Little Rock, along with medical and “other professionals” for things that have happened to him since the accident.

Hudson said the staff and students followed the procedures they were taught and that helped the situation end the way it did.

Jonesboro E911 Director Jeff Presley says the suspect was armed with a gas can and shotgun.

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Arkansas State has over 13,000 students and Jonesboro suffered its own mass shooting in 1998, when two boys who went to Westside Middle School gunned down four of their fellow students and one of their teachers.

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