On Friday, June 21, three people were killed and several others, including two police officers who were reacting, were hurt in a shooting at a grocery store in Arkansas.
Arkansas State Police (ASP) said in a news release that they were called to the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, Ark., which is just south of Little Rock, because someone had been shot.
The shooter was shot by a police officer and was hurt but not seriously enough to kill them. The shooter has now been captured, said Mike Hagar, Secretary of Public Safety and Director of ASP, at a news conference not long after the killing.
“This situation is secure and contained,” Hagar said. “There are no active threats to the community.”
When police were told that shots had been fired at the grocery store, they “responded immediately in the exchange of gunfire with a lone suspect,” Hagar said.
He said that eleven “innocent civilians” had been shot and three of them had died. He also said that two police officers were hurt in a “exchange of gunfire.”” Hagar said that neither the cops’ nor the suspect’s injuries are life-threatening. The injuries to the people range from not life-threatening to “severely critical,” he said.
The Arkansas State Police are in charge of the probe, which is still going on. A news release said that the suspect was recognized as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey from New Edinburg, a town 10 miles southeast of Fordyce.
Local news station KATV says that Roderick Rogers, the city counselor for Fordyce, called 911.
Rogers told KATV, “Today is a very sad day for us.” We would have never thought something like this would happen in a million years. An awful lot of families have been hurt, so please keep praying for them.
KATV talked to sisters Amiya and Ashia Doherty, who also saw the killing and said, “I was really scared. I never thought that would happen in Fordyce.” That’s really scary. I pray for the man because something set him off, but I’m glad I’m okay and so is my family. I do want to pray for the people who were hurt…
A third person who saw what happened and filmed it, David Rodriguez, told 5NewsOnline that he thought he heard fireworks. He began to record with his phone when he saw people running out of the food store.
Rodriguez told the news source, “The police started to show up.” “Then there was massive gunfire and ambulances pulling up… the bullets were just flying.”
When Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders heard about the killing, she wrote on X (formerly Twitter),
“I have been told about the terrible shooting in Fordyce, and I’m in touch with the State Police at the scene all the time,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives,” she said more. “My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this horrific incident.”
