6. Campus Crime

illustration of chemistry lab

 

"Breaking Bad" at Henderson State

In October of 2019, students Joseph Andres and three other students were studying in the chemistry lab of the Arkadelphia campus of Henderson State University when Andrews became sick.

At the time Andrews reported, “I started to fill [sic] a pain in my chest, and my arm felt numb,” he recalled in an affidavit given to police the next day. “I asked the other guys if they felt bad, [and] they said that they could smell something. I started to taste/smell iron, so I thought that I was bleeding but I was not.”


Around 9:30 p.m. the students started to look for the source of the pungent smell. The students found themselves in the lab next door that is used by the two chemistry professors Terry David Bateman and Bradley Rowland.


Picture of ARRESTED: Former Henderson State University chemistry professors Bradley Rowland (left) and Terry David Bateman


The students then contacted the two professors. About ten minutes later, the two professors arrived at the lab. They explained to the students that the smell was an open bottle and Rowland had “fixed and capped it,” 


The morning after the “spill” Tuesday Oct, 8, classes began. When students started to arrive one biochemistry major said he arrived for his 8 a.m. to find a chemical smell overwhelming the halls.


“Imagine something akin to an Expo marker but times a thousand,” said the student, “I had safety concerns. I was talking to my friends before class, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be breathing this in.’ ”


Around lunch, two employees called the university’s police chief, Johnny Campbell, to report the occurrence. According to Arkansas Times, by the time officials arrived, people were complaining of watery eyes and nose and throat irritation. The building was immediately evacuated and locked down.


Emergency response quickly got to the scene, including: the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Arkadelphia Fire Department, the Arkansas State Police, and a chemist from the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory. The National Guard was called in from North Little Rock to help determine potential dangers.



Three days after the spill, law enforcement confirmed Rowland and Bradley’s involvement and they were put under arrest for possession of a substance called phenyl-2-propanone, or P2P, which is a chemical step in a common technique used to make meth.


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