Anxiety grips Ark. campus in aftermath of shooting

[October 29, 2008]  CONWAY, Ark. (AP) -- The sight of campus police rushing across a courtyard left jittery students wondering whether they should run for cover. While there was no cause for alarm Tuesday, the students' anxiety attests to the lingering tension at the University of Central Arkansas in the aftermath of a campus shooting that left two dead and another wounded.

Prosecutors charged four young men with two counts of capital murder each and a host of other felonies in connection with Sunday's attack. They also acknowledged a particularly disturbing aspect of shootings: The victims might not have been the targets of the gunmen.

"This is an incredibly heinous case," Prosecutor Marcus Vaden said at a news conference. "When you have a situation where it appears some, if not all, of the victims were innocent bystanders, that's bad."

The gunmen apparently had been on campus for several minutes before driving toward a group of students near the Arkansas Hall dormitory, campus police Lt. Preston Grumbles said. They fired at least eight rounds from a semiautomatic pistol at the group, he said. He declined to say whether multiple handguns were used.

Investigators declined to offer further details of the shootings or a motive.

Kawin Brockman, 19, Kelcey Perry, 19, and Mario Toney, 20, all of the Little Rock area, and Brandon Wade, 20, of Lake Village in southeast Arkansas, could face the death penalty or a life sentence if convicted on one of the murder charges. They also face charges of attempted capital murder, eight counts of terroristic threatening, illegally possessing a firearm, firing a weapon from a car and having a handgun on a public school property.

Each of the defendants has a criminal record, Vaden said. Some have spoken with investigators about the night of the crime, he said.

They are accused in the shooting deaths of Ryan Henderson, 18, of Little Rock, and Chavares Block, 19, of Dermott, a small city near Lake Village.

Martrevis Norman, of Blytheville, who is not a UCA student, was treated for a leg wound at a local hospital and released.

The four suspects are being held in the Faulkner County jail without bond pending a court hearing. Police did not name their lawyers. A man who answered a telephone at Wade's address said Wade was not represented by a lawyer, but declined to comment further. Attempts to contact family of the other defendants were unsuccessful.

Classes resumed Tuesday at the college's campus in Conway, about 30 miles north of Little Rock.

More than 300 students, faculty members and Conway residents filed into an auditorium in the afternoon to remember the two slain students.

"We will move forward," Wendy Holbrook, associate dean of students, told those gathered. "We will not forget."

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On the Net:

University of Central Arkansas: http://www.uca.edu/

[Associated Press; By JON GAMBRELL]

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