'Two minutes too late,' victim's friend laments

CONWAY - Four minutes before someone gunned down Ryan Henderson outside a University of Central Arkansas dormitory Sunday night, the 18-year-old freshman sent an ominous text message to a friend.

9:15 p.m. - Lil Ryan

sum niggaZ on campus on dat pistol play

we all N arkansas hall, bruh

deep beckuz sum shyt wentdown in PB last night

Ricky Sims, also a freshman, read it as he headed to Arkansas Hall, where Henderson lived. The two planned to stroll through campus on the crisp fall night, and if they were lucky, talk to some girls.

"I was two minutes too late," Sims said Monday morning as he stared across the street at the blood-stained sidewalk where his friend and another student, Chavares Block, were fatally shot.

Block, a 19-year-old preengineering major from Dermott, first enrolled at UCA in fall 2007 and lived off campus. Henderson was from Little Rock and had not yet declared a major.

A third person who is not a UCA student, Martrevis Norman of Blytheville, survived a single gunshot wound to the leg.

University police had de-tained a 19-year-old Conway man, a 19-year-old Morrilton man, a 20-year-old Little Rock man and a 20-year-old Lake Village man by Monday evening and were questioning them.

Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden of the 20th Judicial District said no formal charges had been filed as of late Monday.

"Our campus is safe," university interim President Tom Courtway said before announcing that classes would resume today.

Asked about the possibility of a Pine Bluff connection to the shooting, UCA Police Lt. Rhonda Swindle said, "It's a lead-rumor we're checking into."

Terry Hopson, a detective with the Pine Bluff Police Department, said he could not confirm any connection.

Maxcie Thomas, chief of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Police, said Monday that he was not aware of any incidents at his university that areconnected to the shooting in Conway. However, he said, "I understand the people may have been in town because of homecoming on campus."

Thomas did not explain which people he was referring to. He said there were several "incidents" in the city over the weekend but none on campus.

UCA investigators do not believe the shooting was "random," Swindle said. However, she said they were still trying to determine whether Henderson, Block and Norman were the intended targets.

Sims said his friend did not visit Pine Bluff over the weekend and that he does not believe Henderson was the intended target.

"He was real laid-back," Sims said, adding that he did not know the other victims. "He didn't mess with nobody."

Faulkner County Sheriff Karl Byrd said Monday that he had been told the UCA shootings are "tied with some incidents that happened at UAPB" last weekend.

As investigators pieced together what triggered the shooting, UCA students wandered by the alley between Arkansas Hall and the Snow Fine Arts Building.

"It happened right there," student Andi Reeves told a passing motorist who had stopped. Shepointed to a short brick wall where students from several dorms routinely hang out.

It's unclear whether the gunman or gunmen fired from a vehicle or were on foot.

Reeves said students still feel comfortable walking through campus.

"It wasn't UCA students [who did the shooting]," she said. "They weren't after us. It could happen anywhere."

Her friend Katie Forbush added: "I feel safe already."

Many learned about the shooting through a university emergency-alert system, purchased after the Virginia Tech killings last year. Sunday night was the first time the university used the system.

At 9:30 p.m. UCA sent out an e-mail to anyone with a uca.edu e-mail address, university spokesman Warwick Sabin said. Automated phone messages also went to several hundred administrators and employees.

The UCA Police Department, located just yards from the shooting site, also called all of the residence halls and other facilities on campus.

"So, they were able to personally convey the urgency of the situation to the students and get them secured in the facilities" such as the library and student center, Sabin said.

Some students had to stay in the library for hours, "until police could determine there was no threat existing to them on campus," he said.

The e-mail alert stated: "UCA Police have initiated a tactical response to a reported shooting incident on campus. Students, faculty and staff are advised to lock classrooms and offices and prepare to take shelter. Call 911 to report suspicious persons or activity. Lock classrooms and offices, prepare to take shelter and wait for further instructions from the UCA Police Department."

"What we have worked well, in my opinion," said Courtway, the interim president.

Even so, UCA will review its policies and procedures over the next few weeks. " Nothing's perfect, and you do the best you can," he said. "Our officers got there within a minute. The alerts went out. Everything went well under the circumstances."

Still, some students remained shaken Monday evening as they gathered for a candlelight vigil at the Harding Fountain on campus.

Freshman Nicole Dawson wiped away tears as some of the hundreds of people who gathered broke into a spontaneous chorus of "Amazing Grace."

"It's hard," she said.

She didn't know any of the victims, but she went to show her respect. Roneca Spears went for the same reason. She'd just met Henderson for the first time last week, but she and Block had a class together.

"He seemed really friendly," Spears said of Block. "He really didn't say much."

DeKevious Wilson, who spoke at the gathering, said both men "were good people." He urged those who gathered to come together as a university community.

"Life is too short," Wilson said. "We have no time for bickering. No time for arguing."

Listening from the back of the crowd was Ricky Sims. He stood quietly as people lit their candles in remembrance of his friend. He shielded an orange flame from the wind with his high school letterman's jacket.

Police officers, students, faculty and administrators all joined hands to the Lord's Prayer. When it was over the crowd was silent, with the exception of one brief, loud cry.

Information for this article was contributed by Debra Hale-Shelton of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.