A peaceful shopping excursion in a small Arkansas town turned tragic on Friday when shots broke out at the Mad Butcher store in Fordyce, Arkansas, leaving four people dead and injuring nine others, including two police officers. The alleged shooter, identified as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, was injured and later apprehended following an exchange of gunfire with police.
The deceased included 23-year-old Callie Weems, a licensed practical nurse and mother of a 10-month-old, 50-year-old Roy Sturgis, and 63-year-old Shirley Kay Taylor. Ellen Shrum, 81, succumbed to her injuries the following evening.
The shooting started around 11:30 a.m. on June 21, 2024, with Posey allegedly opening fire outside the grocery store, shattering the front windows, and then continuing his attack inside. Fear-stricken shoppers took cover wherever possible, including the store’s freezers.
Katrina Doherty, who was at the store with her 18-year-old daughter and four-year-old son during the shooting, relayed the terrifying event: “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.”
Doherty, her children, and others hid in a freezer, praying for their safety. “We were just sitting there and praying. I was in panic mode. My son about froze to death,” she said. “We tried to get him quiet, but he was saying he wanted his daddy. It felt like we were in there forever.”
The group was trapped in the freezer, unable to call for help due to a lack of cell service. They only left when the police declared it safe, following a gunfight with the shooter that injured two officers.
Helen Browning, Callie Weems’ mother, expressed her devastation upon learning of her daughter’s death. She had initially thought Weems was safe at her job in the hospital, but reality hit when she arrived at 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 stated she had known Posey since he was a child, adding to her confusion over 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. The tragedy was further intensified for Browning’s family as she disclosed that her niece’s father was the third victim in the shooting.
Angela Atchley, daughter of Shirley Kay Taylor, used social media to announce her mother’s death, describing Taylor as a “great woman” who “didn’t deserve this.”
The shooting has left Fordyce, a small city in southeast Dallas County, Arkansas, with a population of just 3,396 as of 2020, in a state of shock and mourning. Local officials are arranging counseling services for survivors and those affected by the tragic event.
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.
The Mad Butcher grocery store, where the shooting took place, released a statement expressing their shock and sorrow over the “senseless act of violence” and announced its closure during the ongoing investigation.
As Fordyce grapples with the aftermath of the incident, questions remain about what led Posey to allegedly carry out such an act. This tragic event has reignited discussions about gun violence in Arkansas, which has some of the most lenient gun laws in the United States.