Story highlights Soldier Bryan Wolfinger was arrested without incident and charged with "going armed to the terror of the public," police say 
 
 Police have released him, and he is "with his chain of command," an 82nd Airborne Division spokesman says 
 
 Police say the soldier was carrying an AR-15, Kevlar vest and multiple ammunition magazines 
 
 (CNN) Police arrested a soldier carrying an AR-15 rifle and ammunition at a Fayetteville, North Carolina, mall after officers received multiple reports of an armed man walking through a Macy's department store. 
 
 Bryan Wolfinger was tracked down within minutes near the Macy's wing of the Cross Creek Mall on Thursday evening, police said. 
 
 He was detained without incident, according to police, and charged with "going armed to the terror of the public." 
 
 Wolfinger, who is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, was carrying the rifle, a Kevlar vest and multiple ammunition magazines, and he intended to have photographs taken with the gun and the other equipment, CNN affiliate WNCN reported, citing Fayetteville police. 
 
 Police have released Wolfinger, and he is "with his chain of command," said Master Sgt. Patrick Malone, a spokesman for 82nd Airborne Division. 
 
 Read More ||||| An Army sergeant was facing charges Friday morning for allegedly carrying a military-style rifle and ammunition outside a North Carolina mall. 
 
 Twenty-five-year-old Bryan Scott Wolfinger, of the 82nd Airborne, who is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, forced the busy shopping center in Fayetteville into lockdown Thursday night. 
 
 He was taken into custody by Fayetteville police and charged with a misdemeanor -- "going armed to the terror of the public," reports CBSN correspondent Vladimir Duthiers. 
 
 This comes on a holiday weekend when people have been told to be vigilant. 
 
 The Cross Creek Mall is about 10 miles from Fort Bragg, the nation's largest military installation. 
 
 "We got a call, several calls about a subject entering the mall with a rifle," said Fayetteville Assistant Police Chief Anthony Kelly. " ... The first two responding officers made contact with that officer, gave him verbal commands, and the subject complied and they took him into custody." 
 
 Witnesses who saw Wolfinger toting the assault rifle called 9-1-1. 
 
 "They were very panicked, actually; a lot of kids were crying," mall shopper Franchesk Penn said. 
 
 "We were just at the counter and the police officer came up and was like, 'Tell everybody to evacuate the mall,' and none of us had any idea what was happening," mall shopper Nya Fountain said. 
 
 Investigators told CBS News Wolfinger never made it inside the mall. 
 
 They said he had a military-grade tactical vest and was carrying multiple high-capacity magazines. 
 
 Initial reports indicated a second armed male was in the mall, but evidence revealed that Wolfinger was there alone, police said. 
 
 Fayetteville police told "CBS This Morning" Wolfinger told them he was at the mall because he "was going to have photographs taken at a studio with the military equipment and rifle." 
 
 "We just feel it was an individual who made a bad decision," Kelly said. 
 
 An Army official tells CBS News correspondent David Martin that right now, Wolfinger is guilty of "very poor judgment," but whether or not he broke military law remains to be seen. 
 
 Martin notes Wolfinger would not have been issued an AR-15 by the Army. 
 
 The Army has regulations about the storage of personal weapons and that's one thing that will be investigated. ||||| 
 
 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – A heavily armed man arrested at the Cross Creek Mall was actually a soldier who was planning to have photographs taken with the military equipment, according to Fayetteville Police. 
 
 25-year-old Bryan Scott Wolfinger now faces a charge of Going Armed to the Terror of the Public. 
 
 Fayetteville Police rushed to the mall at around 6:30 Thursday night, after several people called 911 to report a gunman at the shopping center. There were “multiple reports of a subject armed with an assault rifle walking through Macy’s,” according to a news release. Wolfinger was soon found and arrested in an entrance near the Macy’s wing. 
 
 Police tell WNCN News he was heavily armed. Wolfinger was wearing a military ballistic panel carrier, and had an AR-15 rifle with multiple ammunition magazines, according to officials. 
 
 Reports of a possible second gunman caused officers searched the entire mall, but officials determined Wolfinger “was acting alone.” 
 
 Wolfinger was processed at the Cumberland County Detention Center released to his superiors at Fort Bragg.
– If you're a sergeant in the US Army, the long Fourth of July weekend might seem the perfect opportunity to get decked out in your military-grade tactical vest and have a photo taken of you holding some of your weaponry. At least, that's what Bryan Scott Wolfinger of the 82nd Airborne tells police was his plan yesterday evening, notes CBS News—except he appears to have chosen a poor way to execute it. Wolfinger was arrested at the Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, NC, about 10 miles outside of where Wolfinger is stationed at Fort Bragg, after panicked calls starting coming in to 911 about a man strolling through the Macy's department store with a rifle. Cops rushed over to the mall and "the male subject was detained without incident and was in the possession of an AR-15, a Kevlar vest, and multiple rifle ammunition magazines," a Fayetteville Police statement says, per CNN. "They were very panicked, actually; a lot of kids were crying," one shopper tells CBS in describing the scene. The 25-year-old Wolfinger was charged with "going armed to the terror of the public," a misdemeanor, reports WNCN, which adds he was arrested at one of the Macy's entrances; investigators tell CBS he never actually entered the mall. Police say Wolfinger told them he "was going to have photographs taken at a studio with the military equipment and rifle," notes CNN. Reports of a possible second armed man in the mall were deemed unfounded after a search. "We just feel it was an individual who made a bad decision," Fayetteville's assistant police chief tells CBS, while an Army official notes that Wolfinger used "very poor judgment" and that they'll be looking into whether he broke any organizational laws regarding storage of his AR-15 (not an Army-issued weapon).