The youngest fatality in a mass shooting at an Arkansas grocery store died while trying to help a gunshot victim during the rampage, police revealed Sunday — the same day the oldest victim succumbed to her wounds.
Arkansas State Police identified the fourth victim as Ellen Shrum, 81. The other shooting victims were Shirley Taylor, 62; Callie Weems, 23, and Roy Sturgis, 50.
Weems, the mother of a 10-month-old daughter and a nurse at Dallas County Medical Center, jumped into action when gunfire broke out on Friday, according to KARK-TV.
“Instead of fleeing from the obvious danger, Callie Weems began using her training as a nurse to render aid to a gunshot victim and unfortunately became a victim herself as a result of her selfless actions,” Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar said at a briefing Sunday afternoon, calling it “one of the most selfless acts I’ve ever seen.”
Callie Weems, 23, was administering aid to another gunshot victim before she was killed in the shooting. (Facebook)
Hagar said Friday’s shooting revealed the “best of humanity” — praising the heroism of responding officers — and the “worst of humanity.”
“They literally positioned themselves between the shooter and helpless victims,” Hagar said of responders. “The Fordyce police department and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department should be commended. Their actions were no less than heroic. When you look at the scene and the way things unfolded, it just — it can’t be overstated how heroic their actions were.”
Two officers were among the 14 people wounded, as were 11 civilians, plus the suspect.
The alleged shooter was identified as Tavis Eugene Posey, 44, who will be charged with four counts of capital murder, with additional charges pending, the public safety department said in a statement. Posey was treated and released from a hospital with non-life-threatening wounds after a shootout with the responding officers, and was brought to the Ouachita County Detention Center. He could face the death penalty, Hagar noted.
The shooting has shattered 3,300-population Fordyce, about 70 miles south of Little Rock, where everyone knew each other and the police knew everyone by name, from victims to suspect, Hagar said.
KATV via AP
Police respond to the scene of a shooting, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Fordyce, Ark. (KATV via AP)
“These were their friends, their neighbors,” he said, noting the motive remained a mystery.
“There appears to be no personal connection to the shooter or any of the victims,” Hagar said. “He simply started engaging victims indiscriminately. Just targets of opportunity.”
Posey also had no gripe with the Mad Butcher grocery store.
“It was just a completely random, senseless act,” Hagar said. “The actions of the suspect were the most cowardly, pathetic actions imaginable, as he was literally preying on defenseless victims, the majority of which were female.”
Posey arrived at the Mad Butcher grocery store just after 11:30 a.m. Friday, toting a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol, Hagar said. He wore a bandolier holding dozens of extra shotgun rounds.
Arriving at the store, “he immediately began engaging victims in the parking lot” and then went inside the store. “Once inside he was firing indiscriminately at both customers and employees.”
In three minutes he fired off “dozens of rounds,” most of them from the shotgun, Hagar said. The initial 911 caller reported them as buckshot; police have not confirmed that, he added.
Two minutes later, police had “neutralized the threat,” Hagar said.
With News Wire Services
