However, Fox News reports that the Jonesboro Police indicated that they received a call on Wednesday regarding a Facebook post by the suspect in which he wrote that he was not only homicidal, but suicidal, while referring to a particular incident with the Social Security Administration.
Advertisement
Bartelt was charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threatening, criminal possession of explosives and possession of a gun on school property. “He stated that he was going to arrive at the university and shoot other people but he understood that murder would be erroneous, so he was going kill himself”.
The camera is rolling as Bartelt throws his shotgun to the ground, kneels and then surrenders to SWAT Team members who are carefully approaching him.
Officials are still investigating and Bartelt could have his first court appearance as early as next week. During Friday’s hearing, Bartelt said, “I never meant to hurt anyone but myself”.
Bartelt’s girlfriend, Connie Francis Hampton, 41, also appeared before the judge and had her bond set at $2,500. The truck he drove was reportedly carrying gasoline as well as a tank of propane. He also said “he was seeing demons in the woods around his house and had tried to photograph them, but was not able to get their pictures”, according to the police narrative released Friday.
Jonesboro police spokesman Paul Holmes says the suspect, 47-year-old Brad Kenneth Bartelt, will appear via video link from the Craighead County jail for a probable cause hearing at 1 p.m. Friday.
Police say Bartelt had a shotgun and containers of gasoline and propane with him when he drove his truck onto a plaza near the student union. The campus then went into lockdown, where it stayed for at least two hours.
No one was injured in the incident and no shots were fired, according to an Arkansas State University press release.
The suspect was identified as Brad Bartelt, 47, a former student at a separate campus of Arkansas State, the university’s police chief said, adding that a motive was not yet known. He ended the statement: “Together we rise; together we thrive”.
Bartelt told cops he was on painkillers and several psychiatric drugs, based on the report.
Advertisement
What happened at Arkansas State Thursday made Bartelt’s Facebook post the day before even more troubling, but Holmes maintains the officers responded to that welfare check by the book.
