A fatal shooting in Fordyce, Arkansas on Friday, June 21, resulted in four deaths and nine injuries, including two police officers, in a local grocery store. The suspect, Travis Eugene Posey, aged 44, was apprehended and injured after a gunfight with law enforcement at the Mad Butcher store.
The victims include Callie Weems, 23, a licensed practical nurse and mother, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Shirley Kay Taylor, 63. An 81-year-old woman, Ellen Shrum, succumbed to her injuries on Saturday evening.
The incident started around 11:30 a.m. with Posey allegedly initiating gunfire outside the grocery store. He then proceeded to the interior of the store, causing panic and fear among the shoppers, some of whom hid in the store’s freezers.
Katrina Doherty, a witness who was shopping with her two children when the shooting started, recounted the chilling experience:
“It was like slow motion my daughter was like Mama, pinch me this can’t be real, and I was like, Baby, it’s real.”
With other shoppers and staff, Doherty and her children took shelter in a freezer. “We were just sitting there and praying. I was in panic mode. My son about froze to death,” Doherty explained. “We tried to get him quiet, but he was saying he wanted his daddy. It felt like we were in there forever.”
Trapped in the freezer and unable to communicate with the outside world due to lack of cell service, the group only left when the police confirmed that it was safe following a shootout with Posey that wounded two officers.
Callie Weems’ mother, Helen Browning, expressed her heartbreak upon learning of her daughter’s death. Browning was initially under the impression that Weems was safe at her job at the hospital, only to learn the truth upon reaching the scene:
“My best friend was standing right there and I said, Kristie, tell me my baby’s OK. and she said, I can’t,” Browning said. “And that’s when I just broke.”
Browning, who knew Posey since his childhood, expressed her confusion about the incident. “I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to go ruin families’ lives,” she said. Additionally, Browning revealed that her niece’s father was also among the victims of the shooting.
Angela Atchley, daughter of victim Shirley Kay Taylor, mourned her mother’s passing on social media, describing her as a great woman who didn’t deserve to die.
With a population of just 3,396 as per the 2020 census, the small city of Fordyce in southeast Dallas County is reeling from the tragedy. Local officials are arranging counseling services for the survivors and those affected by the incident.
Law enforcement officials have stated there are no signs of extremism involved. Posey had a previous arrest in 2011 for possessing a firearm at Fort Drum, an army base in upstate New York.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed her gratitude for the “heroic actions” of law enforcement and first responders following the shooting. The White House has confirmed that President Joe Biden is being kept informed about the incident.
The Mad Butcher grocery store, where the shooting took place, issued a statement expressing their distress and sorrow over the “senseless act of violence” and announced its closure during the ongoing investigation.
On Tuesday, June 25, Posey entered a plea of not guilty to four counts of capital murder and ten counts of attempted capital murder. The judge ordered him to be held without bail.
Authorities have yet to determine a motive for Posey. According to the police, Posey did not seem to have any personal ties to the victims. At the brief hearing, Gregg Parrish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, served as Posey’s attorney. The judge did not set a date for Posey’s next court appearance.
As Fordyce grapples with the traumatic aftermath, questions remain about what motivated Posey to allegedly carry out such an act. The event has reignited conversations about gun violence in Arkansas, a state with some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country.
