BLOOMINGTON — An Indianapolis man was arrested Wednesday morning after Bloomington Police (BPD) say he pulled a knife and chased two women on IU’s campus.
BPD responded to Sample Gates on the campus’ west side at 11:15 a.m. after receiving several 911 calls about women seen running from a man with a knife. When police arrived, bystanders pointed to the suspect, later identified as 22-year-old Karsten Harshbarger.
Officers followed Harshbarger as he traveled east on a campus trail, towards the Indiana Memorial Union, where he climbed onto a ledge and sat down. Police say he was taken into custody without incident, and a later search of him uncovered suspected drugs.
Harshbarger was arrested and charged with two felonies:
- Intimidation while armed with a deadly weapon, a level 5 felony
- Possession of a controlled substance, a level 6 felony.
Police were able to locate the two women who were seeing fleeing from Harshbarger. An investigation revealed the two women were walking along 4th Street when they noticed a man was following them.
When one of the two women turned around, Harshbarger was just a few feet behind them and pulled a folding knife from his pocket. That is when the two women ran towards campus shouting for help.
An IU Notify Alert was not pushed to students during the event.
