LITTLE ROCK — A gunman lurking in a parked car fired a single gunshot into a group of students near Henderson State University on Wednesday afternoon, but no one was struck, authorities said.
Apparently the intended victim was the ex-boyfriend of a woman trying to get money back after a breakup, Arkadelphia Police Chief Al Harris said, noting that information was scarce Wednesday evening as his department was trying tolocate witnesses.
Two women and a man, none of whom is a student at Henderson, were arrested after being stopped outside town minutes later, Harris said. Declining to release their names, he said an investigator was sorting out whom to detain and whom to question as a witness.
"There may be a whole lot more to this than somebody owes me money, but I don't know that at this point," Harris said.
He said investigators believe the suspected gunman is from West Memphis.
The target of the shooting was undergraduate student Antonio Jones, the ex-boyfriend of one of the women detained, police said.
Jones and four other students were leaving Henderson State's Newberry residence hall at Eighth and University streets when a shot was fired from a car parked in a lot that belongs to neighboring Ouachita Baptist University. The car sped off, and police stopped it as the car headed east on Interstate 30.
Henderson State University President Charles Welch said the suspects had been caught quickly and that since apparently no threat of violence remained, the campus did not go on lockdown or take other emergency procedures.
He said that around 4:30 p.m. an e-mail went out to students, faculty and staff explaining what happened. He said a staff member has been designated to talk to concerned parents calling to find out what happened, but otherwise campus was back to normal.
He said the campus, like others, has an emergency system,one that includes a plan for a lockdown of individual buildings or the entire campus and provides a phone and e-mail alert system.
"This was an isolated incident," he said. "Unfortunately this happened. It's one of those things that can happen anywhere."
Campus and city police "responded quickly and appropriately and were able to contain the situation in a very quick manner," he added.
Harris said he expected the suspects would be charged with aggravated assault. A Clark County jailer on Wednesday evening said he had not yet booked the suspects, who he said were still with the investigators.
"I hope this is not a trend," Harris said, but noted other shootings - albeit unrelated - at other Arkansas campuses this year. "It's a bit ridiculous to go to the length these people have."
Last month two students were killed and another man who was not a student was injured in a driveby shooting outside a residence hall at the University of Central Arkansas. Four men, none of them students at the Conway campus, were charged with capital murder.
In February a gunman shot and injured a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That resulted in the arrests of two men who were not students.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 16 on 11/20/2008