Faulkner County sheriff's officers responding to a shooting at a hospice near Greenbrier found a dying man and a house containing firearms and homemade explosives, authorities said Thursday.
Sheriff's deputies went to the home at 149 E. Cadron Ridge Road on the edge of Greenbrier about 8 p.m. Wednesday after Patrick Bauhaus, 18, called 911 to report that he had accidentally shot his friend, Jeremiah Hackler, 22, with a .22-caliber handgun, a sheriff's office news release said.
Hackler was unconscious and not breathing when police arrived. He was pronounced dead later at Conway Regional Medical Center.
Investigators searching the home found explosives along with firearms and called in the Conway Fire Department's bomb squad; the Arkansas State Police; the FBI; and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
FBI spokesman Deb Green declined to comment Thursday when asked about the investigation into the explosives.
Bauhaus lives in the home where he works as a caretaker for two elderly hospice patients, who were not hurt, said Capt. Matt Rice, chief sheriff's deputy.
Two other 18-year-old people were present during the shooting. The 65-year-old owner of the home and hospice also arrived at the scene, and police took all four people into custody for questioning, Rice said. An 18-year-old woman was released Thursday morning.
No one had been charged as of Thursday, Rice said.
The two patients were taken to the Conway hospital to be examined, the sheriff's office said.
Conway Fire Chief Mike Winter said the sheriff's office called in the city's bomb squad because deputies wanted to get the patients out safely but were concerned about trying to move them in the presence of the explosives. Among the items found, he said, were what might have been homemade blasting caps, along with other materials such as an explosive that can be used in firearms practice.
Rice said investigators are treating the shooting as a homicide for now.
"We're not saying that this wasn't an accident, but you just can't go with what someone says," he said.
Rice said he did not know who, if anyone, claimed to own the explosives. The material has been turned over to ATF, he said.
Storing explosive material in a hospice seems "questionable," Rice said.
State Desk on 09/26/2014