A 23-year-old nurse was shot and killed while treating another victim during the mass shooting at an Arkansas grocery store on June 21, police reported on Sunday. She was the mother of a 10-month-old girl.
“Instead of fleeing the store, she stopped to render aid in one of the most selfless acts I’ve ever seen,” Col. Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas State Police, said of the nurse, Callie Weems.
The young nurse was at the Mad Butcher grocery store when the shooting occurred Friday morning in Fordyce, a small town about 70 miles south of Little Rock. Despite the danger, she chose to stay and assist a gunshot victim. Tragically, Ms. Weems was fatally shot while attempting to help.
“She died doing what she always does: Helping,” Tommy Weems, her father, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Ms. Weems’ mother, Helen Browning, shared one of their last messages.
“'I bet you feel like a new mom,’” Ms. Browning recalled, discussing Ivy, Ms. Weems’ baby daughter. Just an hour before the shooting, Ms. Weems was marveling that her little girl had let her sleep in until 9 a.m. that morning.
Ms. Browning plans to raise Ivy now.
“She will know that her mother loved her,” she said. “And that she was the sunshine of momma’s eyes.”
The Arkansas grocery store shooting in Fordyce was a “completely random, senseless act,” according to Col. Hagar.
The suspect, 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, began firing indiscriminately in the parking lot and then inside the store. He was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol, and firing mostly buckshot, Col. Hagar said.
The shooting resulted in a total of 15 individuals being shot. Four people died. The surviving victims range in age from 20 to 65. Five are still hospitalized, including a woman in critical condition, according to the authorities.
“During the incident, we observed the very best and the very worst of humanity,” Col. Hagar said, praising the six responding police officers who put themselves between the shooter and civilians.
“It’s tragic, and our hearts are broken,” Col. Hagar said. “Our prayers, along with Governor Sanders and the entire state of Arkansas, will be with this community and those affected victims.”
Ms. Browning said Mr. Posey went to school with her youngest sister, and she would never have thought he could do something so violent.
Police said on Sunday that Mr. Posey’s motive was still unclear, but he appeared to have no personal connection with any of the victims. The investigation continues.
