A Jonesboro man who posted on Facebook that he was homicidal is in custody after a scare at Arkansas State University.
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While going through Bartelt’s home, his girlfriend was arrested.
Bartelt was ordered to return to court on January 29 for another hearing.
This booking photo released by the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office shows Brad Kenneth Bartelt, 47, who was arrested Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, and charged with aggravated assault. The Jonesboro man was charged with aggravated assault, terrorist threats, criminal possession of explosive material and carrying a firearm in a publicly owned facility.
John Miller, a junior at Arkansas State, told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in a phone interview that he was taking a test in the humanities building when he saw through a window a green pickup drive onto the lawn in front of the union.
Branscum also reported that Bartelt threatened multiple times to shoot the liquid propane tank in his truck.
Police said Connie Hampton is a felon and she was in a home with several guns, which violates her probation.
A former student at ASU’s Newport campus, Bartelt was taken into custody about an hour after he caused a lockdown. 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.
The report said Bartelt told an officer Thursday that he wanted to shoot people at the university but “realized murder would be wrong, so he was going to kill himself”. He was dressed in a suicide vest in court Friday.
No injuries were reported and there were no shots fired throughout the duration of the incident. 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.
At the ASU campus, Chancellor Tim Hudson issued a statement Friday commending the strength of first responders, students and staff after Thursday’s incident.
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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. It wasn’t clear what was said in discussions, but Bartelt eventually threw the shotgun down and surrendered, Elliott said. “Together we rise; together we thrive”.
