Jonesboro Police Department took a man into custody after he brought a gun onto Arkansas State University’s campus on Thursday afternoon.
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The chief said the man was taken into custody without incident and will face charges.
As the investigation goes forward, police are trying to discover what prompted the man, later identified as 47-year-old Brad Kenneth Bartelt, and what his goal was.
Jonesboro police said in a report released Friday that Brad Kenneth Bartelt told an officer he was upset over an injury he sustained while training to drive an 18-wheeler at Arkansas State University’s Newport campus three years ago.
“He said that they did not treat him right and pay for certain expenses and bills resulting from the injury”, the report states.
The current enrollment in Arkansas State University, the state’s second largest, is more than 13,000, but not all students were on campus Thursday because it was the second day of final exams.
A day earlier, officers had gone to Bartelt’s home after receiving a call about a Facebook post where he said he was “suicidal and now homicidal”.
When officers arrived they found Bartelt inside a truck on the east side of the Reng Student Union, holding a shotgun to his chin, according to JPD.
Police surrounded the armed individual, the university said.
About 2 p.m., police negotiators could be heard shouting to the gunman through bullhorns that they wanted to help him.
The FBI, Arkansas State Police Bomb Squad and Craighead County Sheriff’s Department were among the agencies cooperating with one another in response to the situation.
Smith said the man driving the truck parked the truck in an area called Heritage Park Lawn, which is a meeting area.
Galban said he never thought this kind of incident would not happen in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Spokesman Paul Holmes says the man is in a pickup truck outside the student union.
University officials alerted students with a mass text message around 1:30 p.m. He says no shots were fired.
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The university is in Jonesboro, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock.
