Three men entered Ouachita’s campus around 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22 with suspicious intentions. They gathered in the Evans Student Center game room, and Campus Security observed the men. Eventually, the men ventured out from the game room and started walking around the area outside of the student center and Anthony Hall.
“They were plotting, basically,” said Security Director Donnie Hunter. “My speculation is that they were trying to come up with a plan … and find out which place was the easiest to hit. Their plan was to pick the most vulnerable position and steal certain items.”
Two of the men entered Anthony Hall, and Hunter and Lieutenant Deryl Baumgardner followed them. Hunter watched Anthony’s main lobby while Baumgardner went up to the fourth floor and worked his way back down to the lobby, checking all of the other floors’ study lounges.
“Not finding them or anyone who didn’t look like they belonged there, I came down back to the main lobby where the captain was still watching,” Baumgardner said. “We agreed that I would go down to the basement … to see if they were down there, and one of them was.”
The combined efforts of Hunter and Baumgardner cornered the man, and they asked him for his ID card.
“Naturally, he didn’t have any,” Baumgardner said. “We asked him what he was doing there, and he said that he was looking around and seeing what it [the campus] was like [as a prospective student].”
The Campus Security officers pressed the suspect for some form of identification, and he finally presented his driver’s license. According to the Arkadelphia Police Department’s (APD) report, the man was later identified as Jacoby Alexander Wright, 20. Baumgardner took his license to the security office to make a copy of it to have on file. In the meantime, Wright started acting belligerently.
“He got really vulgar, left the scene and was using language that was very inappropriate,” Baumgardner said.
After that display, Hunter called the APD. Their officers patrolled the area and soon identified another one of the suspects as Patrick Tinch. Tinch was retained while the officers searched for Wright and the other suspect.
Wright had been pacing around the plaza and reached Ouachita Street by the time the APD officers had circled around in their patrol car.
APD Corporal Brandy Harmon stated in his police report that, “As I continued driving, I saw Wright walking toward me while on the phone. I stopped and exited my patrol car and started walking toward Wright. I called Wright’s name, and he continued walking. I then told Wright to stop, and he again ignored my request.”
Wright was uncooperative and started cursing the officers and threatened to bite them when they attempted to grab his arm to get his attention. Wright’s agitated behavior led to the officers using pepper spray in an effort to pacify Wright.
Wright was taken to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Tinch was released and advised to never return to Ouachita’s campus. The third suspect, Sklar Gaspard, was questioned by Arkadelphia police and also ordered to stay off Ouachita grounds. Campus Security is sending letters to Wright, Tinch and Gaspard that bans them from campus.
The combined efforts of Ouachita’s Campus Security and the Arkadelphia Police Department allowed for a swift resolution of the matter. Later the same day, Keldon Henley, dean of students, sent an e-mail to Ouachita students to inform them of the arrests.
Campus Safety uses many safety measures such as surveillance cameras, card access systems and the emergency notification system, but Hunter says that he cannot stress enough how important it is for students to report to Campus Security anything that seems dangerous or out of the ordinary.
“The best thing people can do is, when they see something that looks suspicious, call campus safety,” Hunter said. “We can help if we know about it. We take all calls seriously, and no call is a dumb call.”
