JONESBORO -- A former Arkansas State University-Newport student armed with a 12-gauge shotgun drove onto the ASU-Jonesboro campus Thursday and held police at bay in front of the student union for about an hour before surrendering without injuring anyone, authorities reported.
Police identified the man as Brad Kenneth Bartelt, 47, of Jonesboro. Bartelt wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that he was angry at the Social Security Administration for "falsifying medical records ... over 22 times," and he called himself "suicidal and now homicidal."
He is a former graphic design major at ASU-Newport, university officials said.
ASU-Jonesboro reported an "active shooter" situation over its alert system at 1:33 p.m., after students reported seeing a man drive a green Chevrolet pickup onto the lawn of the Carl R. Reng Student Center in the middle of the campus. A large American flag flew on a pole in the bed of the truck.
A student witness said Bartelt never entered the building. He said his actions were a "personal issue," and he didn't want to hurt innocent people, the witness said.
Police locked down the Jonesboro campus, and negotiators from the city Police Department's SWAT team talked Bartelt into surrendering at 2:46 p.m., Jonesboro police spokesman Paul Holmes said.
University officials called off final exams Thursday and rescheduled them for Wednesday, said Chancellor Tim Hudson. Classes were to resume today, and other final exams were to proceed as scheduled. Hudson said graduation ceremonies also will be held as scheduled.
University Police Department Chief Randy Martin said the school had received no threats, but he will add police patrols on campus today as a precaution.
Jordan Sheets, 20, of Carlisle, a campus sophomore, said he was in the student union when the pickup drove onto the lawn in front of the building. The driver "cut doughnuts" on the grass, then drove to the building's doors on the east side.
"We first thought it was a kid doing it and he'd get in trouble," Sheets said. "Then he jumped out, and all we saw was the shotgun barrel sticking out of the door. We knew it was serious."
Sheets said the gunman, who was about 30 feet from him, told Sheets and other students to leave.
"He said this was a personal issue, and he didn't want any innocent lives lost," Sheets said.
Police swarmed the campus, closing roads, which created traffic jams on U.S. 49 on the east side of the campus. Officers from the university's Police Department, Jonesboro Police Department, Craighead County sheriff's office, Arkansas State Police, the FBI and several nearby departments responded to the situation.
About 2 p.m., police negotiators could be heard shouting to the gunman through bullhorns that they wanted to help him.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott said Bartelt had a shotgun pointed at his own head. He stayed inside his truck most of the time but got out once to douse the cab with gasoline. Elliott said he did not know if Bartelt had intended to burn the truck.
Elliott said Bartelt spoke with officers, but they could not understand what he was saying.
"He was threatening himself," Elliott said. "He appeared to have some mental health issues we were concerned with."
After his surrender, officers reported finding a 100-pound tank of propane in the truck's bed.
A day earlier, Bartelt referred on his Facebook page to an August 2012 accident in which he was critically injured while a student at ASU-Newport.
Newport Police Department Lt. Patrick Weatherford said Bartelt "basically stepped behind a [semi] truck as it was backing [up]" and was dragged several feet.
A police report at the time said Bartelt had gone "under the rear trailer to remove a road barrel that was lodged under [an axle] and failed to tell [the driver] what he was doing."
The truck moved forward, and Bartelt was pinned between the road and the barrel, the report indicated. He suffered several internal injuries on his right side, the report said.
At 12:52 p.m. Wednesday, Bartelt wrote a Facebook post, assailing Administrative Law Judge John Goree of the federal Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Little Rock, along with medical and "other professionals" for things that have happened to him since the accident. He said the accident left him disabled.
Goree was not reached for comment after-hours Thursday. Employees in the building where he works said he had left for the day, and they declined to release his phone number. They said the FBI had been in the judge's office earlier and had talked with him.
"Told multiple professionals and people in State of Arkansas I AM SUICIDAL and now HOMICIDAL, which is what appears they want so problem goes away," Bartelt wrote in the post. "I already died twice as result of accident, if necessary let my last DEATH be for a purpose."
Elliott said police were not aware of Bartelt's Facebook post when they responded to the call at the Jonesboro campus.
"The bottom line is, we had a man with a gun," Elliott said. "How it ended was up to him. The outcome was based upon his actions."
Taylor Davidson, a campus sophomore from Jonesboro, said he was in the student union when the gunman drove up.
Davidson said he wrote a term paper about school shootings for a class two weeks ago and was a first-grader at nearby Westside Elementary School in 2000 -- two years after two boys shot and killed four students and a teacher at the school on March 24, 1998.
"It freaked me out," Davidson said of Thursday's occurrence. "You hear about it, but I didn't think it could happen here. I heard 'active shooter' yelled out, and I ran."
Bartelt was held in the Craighead County jail in Jonesboro on Thursday evening on charges of aggravated assault, terroristic threatening, and drunk and disorderly conduct, an officer at the jail said.
Elliott said his department will soon turn over its investigative findings to Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington.
Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 12/11/2015