Active Shooter at Arkansas Grocery Store Leaves Four People Dead and Ten Others Injured Crime Spree

Monday June 24, 2024, 7:32-11:34 PM-Fordyce Arkansas- An active shooting crime spree underwent today at the Mad Batcher Grocery Store killing four people with deadly force and ten others seriously injured taken to the hospital in critical condition for life-threatening injuries. The shots came sudden at unseen distance of point-blank range.

Law enforcement patrol units were successful in taking down the active shooter five minutes passed. Fordyce sheriff's department speculate there was no motive behind the shooting and the gunman was gunning victims at random by performing deadly intentions to neutralize them.

The assailant didn't have any alleged targets, and the police squad rushed in a down of a population that serves 3,400 to apprehend the gunman who unexpected, corresponded compliance to surrounded.

“They are connected to everyone formally, from the assailant to the victims on scene,” said Col. Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas Sheriff's Office. He said the officers and deputies were not referring to the victims virtually responding. “They’re calling them by name. They know these people. They’re their friends. They’re their neighbors.” And that, he said, has made this “matters personal and so complex.”

The impact point of relations opened suspected knowledge clarified about the investigation as sheriff deputies shared the entire case what occurred after eight minutes of havoc encompassed. Sheriff deputy First Responders made contact on scene to restrain the incident three minutes after shots had been discharged.

The identified as followed had been revealed by the Fordyce Sheriff's Office. Callie Weems, 23; Roy Sturgis, 50 Shirley Taylor, 62, and Ellen Shrum, 81 have been pronounced deceased. There was an additional victim named last Saturday involved relating to been in critical condition, tallying the number of victims of injured to ten. Outweighed the statistics differentiated from the five people who had been admitted to the hospital for their injuries, one woman still sustained life-threatening injuries at a hospital in Little Rock, Hagar communicated further explanation broke to the media.

Weems was employed as hospital R.N. and was shot at the time present in the food store. When she saw another individual that has been injured, she responded to that person for instant attendance to be helped instead of escaping the store, Hagar said. Then she was shot herself.

“One of the most selfless acts I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The suspect identified as Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of nearby New Edinburg, is has been charged with four counts of capital manslaughter, that could face either life imprisonment or the death penalty. It was not clear when he would make his first court appearance, Hagar said. It was also unclear whether Posey had legal representation.

Sheriff Hagar communicated at news briefing lecturing further discussion about any additional information being investigated by Fordyce sheriff's department. As of now current there is still pending forensics being covered in this case and with interrogation of the suspect Posey. Motive of intent to kill were omitted speculation and there had been no determination reached about the urgency to kill victims shot at the scene randomly. “It was just a completely random, senseless act,” he said. And although Hagar said he was not aware whether Posey, known as Joey, had any medical or mental health issues, “that’s obviously something that will be the focus of the investigation.”

Held present the township is lamenting despair prepared to hold a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in front of the Mad Butcher store, Hagar did not mask his outrage over what he called “the most cowardly, pathetic actions imaginable, as he was literally stalking on defenseless victims, the majority of which were female.”

The suspect Travis Eugene Posey going to the pseudonym alter-ego as Joey had no prior medical condition or psychological history on file in the behavior system that's being lasered center concentration attention to assist enlarging unanswered questions completed in the investigation.

Still, as a community in mourning prepared to hold a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in front of the Mad Butcher store, Hagar did not mask his outrage over what he called “the most cowardly, pathetic actions imaginable, as he was literally preying on defenseless victims, the majority of which were female.”

Constricted before noon Friday in contrast, Posey arrived in his truck at a small shopping center that includes the Mad Butcher, Hagar said. Posey was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol, and wearing a bandolier with dozens of shotgun rounds, Hagar said.

He was not kevlar body coverings or bullet proof vest when confronted by sheriff deputies and other officers. He immediately began shooting at people in the parking lot, then walked into the grocery store and began “firing indiscriminately at both customers and employees,” Hagar said.

Posey was acting alone and had not accomplices, Hagar added. Officers from the Fordyce Police Department and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, including Sheriff Mike Knodel, responded. After Posey was critical in the standoff shootout, which totaled dozens of rounds, officials opted to taken him into custody neighboring Ouachita County, given the heavy involvement of local law enforcement.

“We just needed to have a little bit of separation and space,” Hagar said.

The Fordyce Police Department later posted on its Facebook page that it was the worst day in the town’s history. “It was a terrifying experience for the community, and us as law enforcement,” it said.

In an interview Sunday, Helen Browning, Weems’ mother, said her daughter, who worked at the Dallas County Medical Center, not far from the Mad Butcher, “has probably taken care of every officer that was there or their child.”

“Weems passed away working what she enjoyed,” Browning said.

Browning also said he was an acquaintance of Posey's relatives, who have lived in the area for ages.

“There’s no hate in my heart; this is nothing on them,” she said. “I’m going to go to their house later and tell them that in person, because I know they’re hurting, too.”

On Saturday, Patricia Pinckard, 65, who lives in a small white house just to the left and behind the Mad Butcher, broke out in tears as she discussed the shooting. She has been a resident on and off all her life.

Fordyce, she said, is such a “little bitty tow.