A fourth victim of Friday’s mass shooting at an Arkansas grocery story has died for their wounds.
Callie Weems, a 23-year-old nurse, was shot while helping another gunshot victim at Mad Butcher’s in Fordyce, Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar said at a Sunday news conference, according to the Associated Press.
“Instead of fleeing the store, she stopped to render aid in one of the most selfless acts I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Travis Eugene Posey, 44, opened fire Friday morning at the grocery, riddling cars with bullets while customers scrambled for safety. Investigators have no clue what prompted his murderous rampage, but he carred a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol, and a bandolier with dozens of shotgun rounds, authorities said. He fired most of his rounds outside with the shotgun and then went inside, firing “indiscriminately” at customers and employees, Hagar said.
Police arrived on scene within minutes, and Posey came back outside to engage in a shootout with police. Two officers were wounded, as was Posey, who has been charged with four counts of capital murder, The wounded range in age from 20 to 65, police said. Five were still hospitalized, including a woman in critical condition. KHTV reported. Other charges are pending.
Helen Browning, Weems’ mother, told the AP that her daughter was herself a new mother, with a 10-month-old girl named Ivy. She said she plans to raise the little girl and makes sure she knows that her mother loved her.”
Browning had more connections to the shooting that truly rocked Fordyce, a town of about 3,200 people. Another of the fatalities, 50-year-old Roy Sturgis, was a member of her extended family. She said he was a logger and a good dad to his own daughter.
“Roy was as country as cornbread,” she said. “He lived a simple life. He was a simple man.”
The other victims who died were Shirley Taylor, 62, and Ellen Shrum, 81.
Taylor “was our family rock,” her daughter, Angela Atchley, told KTHV.
Five of the wounded, who ranged in age from 20 to 65, were still hospitalized on Sunday, including a woman who was listed in critical condition.
Browning had one other direct connection to the shooting. Her youngest sister, she said, went to school with Posey.