When gunfire erupted in a small Arkansas town grocery store on the morning of Friday, June 21, a nurse rushed to the aid of one of the fallen.
“Rather than fleeing obvious danger,” Callie Weems, 23, was killed while trying to render life-saving aid to another gunshot victim, Col. Mike Hagar of the Arkansas State Police said at a news conference. . Press conference weekend.
“During the incident, we saw the best and worst of humanity,” Hagar said, praising the young woman’s “selfless actions” during the mass shooting.
Weems, the mother of a 10-month-old daughter, was the third generation in her family to pursue a career in nursing.
“He died doing what he always did: helping,” said his father, Tommy Weems. The Arkansas Democratic Gazette.
Travis Eugene Posey in mugshot taken on June 21, 2024.
Ouachita County Detention Center
The suspect, Travis Eugene Posey, 44, “had no personal connection” to any of the 14 shooting victims, according to Hagar.
“It was just a completely random and senseless act,” he said.
The suspect will be charged with four counts of capital murder, with additional charges pending, Arkansas State Police said in a Sunday, June 23, news release. (His online reservation registration lists capital murder and attempted capital murder).
The suspect allegedly opened fire at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas, around 11:38 a.m., according to Arkansas State Police.
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Upon exiting his truck, he “immediately began attacking the victims in the parking lot,” Hagar said, adding that “once inside, he was shooting indiscriminately at both customers and employees,” whom Hagar called “targets.” chance”.
Police arrived less than three minutes after the first shot and took the suspect into custody in less than five minutes, according to Hagar.
According to police, in that short time, 15 people (12 civilians, two police officers and the suspect) were shot.
Ellen Shrum, 81, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Shirley Taylor, 62, also died from their injuries.
Of the surviving civilian victims (five women and three men aged between 20 and 65), five remain hospitalized, including one in critical condition, as of Sunday, June 23.
Clockwise: Callie Weems, 23, Shirley Taylor, 62, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81.
GoFundMe; Facebook (3)
Fordyce Police Officer James Johnson, 31, was treated for a gunshot wound and released from the hospital Saturday night. Jacob Murry, 26, of the Fordyce Police Department and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, was also treated “for minor gunshot-related injuries,” police said in a series of news releases.
The suspect, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries during an exchange of gunfire with authorities, was treated and booked into the Ouachita County Detention Center at 6:26 p.m. Friday, according to police and their records. online registration.
Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via KeynoteUSA
A hearing date has not been set, according to his record, and it was not immediately clear if he had retained a defense attorney.
Weems, who liked to ride horses in her spare time, was called “Woodrow” after the character of the same name in the western book and television series Lonesome Dove, her father told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
About an hour before gunfire erupted in the tight-knit Fordyce, Arkansas, community of about 3,200 people, Weems was texting her mother, Helen Browning, the 53-year-old woman told her. The KeynoteUSA in a phone interview over the weekend.
Callie Weems, with her young daughter, Ivy.
Go finance me
In the text message exchange, Weems excitedly told her mother that her young daughter had finally let her sleep in until 9 a.m.
“I bet you feel like a new mom,” her own mother responded in what would ultimately be their last conversation.
Browning, who now plans to raise her 10-month-old granddaughter, Ivy, told the KeynoteUSA that the little girl would grow up “knowing that her mother loved her and that she was the sunshine in Mom’s eyes.”
Timber Harmon, a friend of Weems, created a GoFundMe page to help Browning with the cost of his funeral and Ivy’s future expenses.
Harmon, who called the young nurse “a phenomenal mother” and “a hero,” added on the campaign page: “She died trying to save someone else. What a special friend we all had!
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