LITTLE ROCK — A dormitory at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a bomb threat was reported to campus police.
“A person indicated that there was a bomb in one building - University Hall,” said Rick Stripling, vice chancellor for student affairs at ASU.
“We do not see this as a part of anything going on nationally,” Stripling added, referring to bomb threats made at other universities in recent days.
Some of those threats were linked to Innocence of Muslims, an anti-Muslim video that has sparked worldwide outrage and violent protests.
Stripling said that at this point, the ongoing investigation on campus indicates the threat wasn’t related to the video.
ASU campus police arrested Carlon Walker, 44, of Jonesboro, in the bomb threat, the university said in a news release issued Tuesday evening. Walker is not an ASU student, the university said.
The university’s administration learned of the threat at the same time students did, via emergency text alerts sent out by university police.
Stripling and other ASU officials said the text went out around 3:05 p.m.
Besides University Hall, the International Student Center was evacuated.
University Hall is home to 400 students, many of whom were in class or at work at the time of the evacuation.
University police conducted a visual inspection of each room on every floor with help from a bomb-detection dog sent in from West Memphis, Stripling said.
University police alerted the campus community at 5:37 p.m. that there was no longer a threat. Students were allowed to return to the buildings.
Authorities found no evidence of a bomb during the search.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 09/19/2012