Police do not know his motivation for the incident, nor have they revealed what charges will be filed against him.
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After containing the situation, Elliot says officers approached Bartelt, who had a 12 gauge shotgun pointed under his chin.
Bartelt told police he was on several psychiatric medications and painkillers, according to the report released Friday.
Either in the same post, or a related one, Bartelt said he was “suicidal and now homicidal”, prompting police to show up to his home. It wasn’t clear what was said in discussions, but Bartelt eventually threw the shotgun down and surrendered, Elliott said.
“When we arrived, he was threatening himself”, Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott told reporters.
The campus sounded an alarm that made students scurry, but the Jonesboro police chief said it seemed Bartelt posed a greater threat to himself during Thursday’s incident.
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.
Although police surrounded the shooter, people were still urged to stay away from the student union.
In an early report out of the university, school administrators announced a campus-wide lockdown following reports that a man with a weapon had driven onto campus.
Also Friday, police released a report indicating the man charged in the standoff – 47-year-old Brad Kenneth Bartelt – said he initially meant to shoot others at the university but later made a decision to threaten only to take his own life.
Chancellor Tim Hudson issued a statement Friday morning commending the strength of first responders, students and staff after Thursday’s incident.
“He also stated that he was seeing demons in the woods around his house and had attempted to photograph them, but was unable to get their graphics”, the report said.
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The university is in Jonesboro, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock. ASU announced the campus would be closed for the rest of Thursday and tests scheduled for that day would be administered next Wednesday.
