Fordyce shooting: Panicked customers at an Arkansas grocery store hid in the freezer, seeking shelter during a shooting that left three people dead and ten injured

CNN
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Families were shopping at a grocery store in a small Arkansas town on Friday when gunshots rang out throughout the store, sending people running for cover or hiding in a freezer.

Katrina Doherty, who was shopping for dinner with her 18-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, said she first thought she heard something fall, but then she saw glass shatter and someone fall to the ground. That’s when she knew shots had been fired.

Outside, David Rodriguez pulled into a gas station when he heard “popping noises” that he initially thought were fireworks. Then he noticed that the windows at the front of the convenience store were shattered – as if they had been “shot open” by gunfire, Rodriguez said.

Panicked shoppers began to flee as shots were fired in rapid succession, Rodriguez said.

A man opened fire at the Mad Butcher in Fordyce, killing three people and wounding 10 others. Police responded around 11:30 a.m. and fired at the “sole suspect,” according to Arkansas State Police.

A cell phone video shows a man in the parking lot aiming a long gun and firing in several directions.

Finding no way to escape, Doherty and others inside the store hastily hid in a freezer. Doherty’s daughter and son, who were in another aisle, reunited with their mother in the back of the store and followed two store employees into the freezer. The 39-year-old mother said she heard about nine or 10 gunshots before she made it into the icy shelter.

“We ran in there really fast. We could still hear gunshots,” Doherty said. “It was like slow motion. My daughter said, ‘Mommy, pinch me, this can’t be true.’ And I said, ‘Baby, it’s true.'”

From outside, Rodriguez heard sirens and saw ambulances and police arriving at the scene.

Doherty couldn’t hear what was going on outside, and when they tried to call 9-1-1, there was no reception. The group stayed inside and endured the freezing cold in “panic,” with some praying and others crying, she recalls.

Her son started crying, “but we finally calmed him down because I didn’t want the shooter to hear.”

“We just sat there and prayed. I was panicking. My son almost froze to death. We tried to calm him down, but he said he wanted to go to his dad. It felt like we were in there forever,” Doherty said. “We were in there for maybe 15 minutes. I asked the Lord to protect us all. I just prayed. The other woman prayed. She was crying.”

At one point, one of the employees opened the freezer door and saw a dead person right outside, Doherty said. The door remained closed until one of the store employees outside heard police. Then they were escorted out of the store, Doherty said.

After leaving the store, Doherty met her 15-year-old twin daughters, who had been waiting outside in the car during the shooting and ducked when they heard the gunshots.

There has been a spate of shootings in the United States in recent weeks. Since last Friday, the Gun Violence Archive has recorded 21 mass shootings. These include shootings at a paddling pool in Michigan, at a Juneteenth celebration in Texas and at a car rally in Massachusetts.

They are among at least 234 mass shootings that have taken place in the United States in 2024, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Like CNN, the archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people (not including the shooter) are shot.

Matthew Gill, the meat manager at Mad Butcher, told CNN that a man entered the store with a shotgun and a shootout with police ensued.

Two police officers were injured in the shooting. The suspected shooter, identified by authorities as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, was also injured and taken into custody.

Posey, a New Edinburg resident, is facing three counts of felony assault, with additional charges pending, according to an Arkansas State Police news release. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, according to Dallas County District Attorney Eric Marks.

The injuries to the officers and suspect are not considered life-threatening, according to Mike Hagar, Secretary of Public Safety and Director of the Arkansas State Police. He noted that the “situation is secure … under control. There is no active threat to the public.”

“The remaining injuries to the civilian population range from non-life-threatening to extremely critical,” he said.

Posey was “treated for non-life-threatening injuries following an exchange of gunfire with police, taken into ASP custody and transported to the Ouachita County Detention Center,” ASP’s press release said. It is unclear if Posey has retained legal counsel at this time.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on X that she had been informed of the “tragic shooting” in Fordyce and was in “constant contact” with state police on the scene. Fordyce, a small town in southeast Dallas County, had a population of just 3,396 in 2020.

Fordyce City Council member Roderick Rogers told CNN affiliate KATV he was on the phone with someone at the store when the shooting occurred. “Man, it was bad,” Rogers said.

The council member said he had spoken to survivors of the shooting who were “traumatized.”

“We are trying to get some advice and get everything else in place at the moment,” he added.