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CNN reports a mass shooting occurred at a local grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas, on Friday, June 21. Three people were killed, and at least ten were left injured.
Fordyce is a tiny city in Dallas County. This shooting adds to the at least 234 mass shootings that have occurred in 2024 alone. Two of the individuals wounded in the incident were police officers. Additionally, the shooter, Travis Eugene Posey, was wounded and arrested.
The injuries the law enforcement officials and the perpetrator sustained were not life-threatening. Furthermore, the remaining “civilian injuries range from non-life threatening to extremely critical,” Mike Hagar, the Secretary of Public Safety and Director of Arkansas State Police, stated during a press conference.
Police reportedly arrived promptly after citizens notified authorities that an active shooter was terrorizing the Mad Butcher grocery store.
The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. on July 21. An eyewitness, David Rodriquez, told the outlet he initially thought the sounds of gunshots were fireworks. He then saw customers rapidly running from the area. Some individuals hid in a store cooler to escape the gunfire. City Council member Roderick Rogers was on the phone with a person in the grocery store during the ordeal. He said, “Man, it was bad.” There was a shootout between the police and the “lone suspect,” which resulted in the shooter being injured. The councilman said the survivors are “traumatized,” and they are getting “counseling and everything set up at the moment.”
Hagar assured citizens that there were no longer any “active threats to the community.”
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to let her followers know that she was “briefed” on the “tragic shooting” and was in “constant” communication with police at the scene. Furthermore, she thanked “law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives.”
According to KARK, authorities later confirmed that 11 people were injured in the incident.
The Independent reports that Posey has been charged with first-degree murder. Meanwhile, authorities are investigating his motive for the fatal shooting.
