CNN
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Families shopping at a small-town Arkansas grocery store on Friday heard gunshots ring out inside the store, causing some to run for cover and others to take shelter in freezers.
Katrina Dougherty, who was shopping for dinner with her 18-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, said she first thought she heard something falling, then saw glass shatter and someone fall to the ground, then realized she had heard a gunshot.
Outside, David Rodriguez was pulling into a gas station when he heard a popping sound that he initially thought was fireworks. He then noticed the front window of the grocery store was shattered. It looked like it had been “shot through” by gunfire, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said panicked shoppers began to flee as gunfire rang out.
A man opened fire at the Mad Butcher in Fordyce, killing three people and wounding 10. Arkansas State Police said officers responded to the scene around 11:30 a.m. and exchanged gunfire with a “lone suspect.”
Cellphone video showed a man pointing a long gun and firing in multiple directions in the parking lot.
Collin Murphy/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
Officers are investigating at the scene of a shooting at a grocery store on Friday.
Unable to find a way out, Dougherty and others in the store quickly hid in a freezer. Dougherty’s daughter and son, who were in another aisle, reunited with their mother at the back of the store and followed the two employees into the freezer. The 39-year-old mother said she heard nine or 10 gunshots before reaching the ice shelter.
“We ran in there real fast and we could still hear the gunshots going off,” Dougherty said. “It was like slow motion. My daughter was like, ‘Mommy, pinch me, this isn’t real,’ and I was like, ‘Baby, this is real.'”
Rodriguez heard sirens from outside and saw ambulances and police arrive on the scene.
Dougherty couldn’t hear what was going on outside and tried to call 911 but couldn’t get through. The group stayed inside and endured the freezing cold in “panic mode,” some praying, some crying, she recalled.
Her son began to cry, “but I finally managed to calm him down because I didn’t want the perpetrator to hear.”
“We just sat there and prayed. I was panicking. My son was freezing to death. We tried to keep him quiet but he kept saying he wanted his daddy. It felt like we were there forever,” Dougherty said. “We were there for probably about 15 minutes. I was asking God to keep everybody safe. We were just praying. The other woman was praying. She was crying.”
At one point, one of the employees opened the freezer door and saw someone dead just outside, Dougherty said. The door remained closed, but one of the store employees heard police outside and they were escorted out of the store, Dougherty said.
Upon leaving the store, Dougherty was reunited with her 15-year-old twin daughters, who had been waiting outside in a car during the shooting and took cover when they heard gunfire.
The country has seen a spate of mass shootings in recent weeks, with 21 recorded in the Gun Violence Archive since last Friday. The shootings took place in locations as diverse as a splash pad in Michigan, a Juneteenth celebration in Texas and a car meet in Massachusetts.
These are among at least 234 mass shootings expected to occur in the U.S. in 2024, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Collin Murphy/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
Officers investigated on Friday and found damage to the windshield.
Matthew Gill, meat manager at Mad Butcher, told CNN that a man entered the store with a shotgun and a shootout ensued with police.
Two officers were wounded in the shooting, and a suspect, identified by authorities as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, was also wounded and taken into custody.
Posey, of New Edinburg, is expected to be charged with three counts of murder, with additional charges pending, according to a news release from Arkansas State Police.
Haggar said injuries to the officer and suspect were not life-threatening. “The situation is safe and contained. There is no threat to the community,” he said.
“The remaining civilian injuries range from non-life threatening to extremely serious,” he said.
In a statement, ASP said Posey “was treated for non-life threatening injuries following a shootout with police and was taken into ASP custody and transported to the Ouachita County Detention Center.” It is unclear at this time if Posey has retained an attorney.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement about X that she had been notified of a “tragic shooting” in Fordyce and was “in constant contact” with state police on the scene. Fordyce, a small city in southeastern Dallas County, had a population of just 3,396 as of 2020.
Fordyce City Councilman Roderick Rogers told CNN affiliate KATV that he was inside the store and on the phone with someone when the shooting happened. “It was absolutely horrible,” Rogers said.
The city council member said he had spoken to survivors of the shooting who were “traumatized.”
“We are currently in the process of providing counselling and other arrangements,” he added.
