By Jo McMullen / KVSC Reporter

A 45-year-old man was arrested after allegedly killing a man in what St. Cloud police are calling a random shooting Sunday morning.

On Monday, authorities identified the shooting victim as 68-year-old Edward Anthony Ward. He was a Management and Entrepreneur professor in the Herberger Business School at St. Cloud State University.

President Robbyn Wacker sent a campus-wide email stating this is a heart wrenching and unexpected loss for Dr. Ward’s family and friends, our university, our students and the St. Cloud community. Dr. Ward served as a faculty member since 1990. The university is offering counseling support to colleagues and friends.

On Sunday, police were called just after 6:15 a.m. to a home in the 2600 block of Island View Drive with a report that Ward was shot while standing inside the doorway. Police found him with gunshot wounds when they arrived. He was taken to the St. Cloud Hospital where he later died.

Officers noted that the shots appeared to have come from outside the home. The suspect has fled the area before police arrived, and a K9 track and search did not locate him. Just after 7 a.m. dispatch got a call about a man walking with a handgun in the 1200 block of 4th Avenue South. Police found and arrested the man without incident.

He was identified as 45-year-old Jason Robert Beckman of Duluth, and they also found his gun. He told police that he had shot a man earlier. The police believe this was a random incident and the victim did not know Beckman and there were no connections to the neighborhood.

Beckman is being held on homicide charges in the Stearns County Jail and the BCA is investigating.