Young mother, head of family, loving father and pillar of the community identified as victim of Arkansas grocery store shooting

A 23-year-old nurse and mother of a 10-month-old girl is among the four people killed in Friday’s mass shooting at an Arkansas grocery store.

Callie Weems died Friday morning at a Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a small town about 70 miles south of Little Rock, when bullets and shrapnel from a suspect’s long gun struck 13 people, including two police officers whose injuries were not life-threatening.

Family members and police confirmed that the others killed in the mass shooting were Shirley Taylor, 63, Roy Burton Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81. Interviews and an obituary helped shed light on their lives.

Shrum was the latest death announced by Arkansas State Police on Saturday evening.

One of the four survivors of the attack who remained in hospital on Saturday evening is said to be in critical condition, police said. The identity of the patient, who is a woman, has not been disclosed.

Callie Weems

When Helen Browning learned of the attack, she tracked her daughter’s phone to the Dallas County Medical Center, where Weems worked, and assumed she had volunteered on her day off to help the victims.

“She’s there,” Browning said she told herself. “She’s helping.”

But people kept calling, so she drove to the scene of the violence to investigate, Browning said in interviews with NBC News and NBC affiliate KARK in Little Rock.

“My best friend was standing right next to me and I said, ‘Kristie, tell me my baby is OK.’ And she said, ‘I can’t,'” Browning told the Arkansas station.

Weems was shopping at Mad Butcher when she was shot, family members said. The loss is incredibly unfair, Browning said, because Weems had created a lot of goodwill.

“You can stab her in the back 17 times,” Browning said, “and she would still help you.”

Stepfather Bruce Grice described Weems as “the sweetest girl.”

“Always worried about other people,” he said.

Browning, also a nurse, is currently grappling with how to raise her granddaughter, Ivy, who she said was Weems’ “salvation.”

“And now she’s mine too,” Browning told KARK.

Arkansas State Police Lt. Col. Mike Hagar said at a news conference Sunday that Weems was killed while tending to other victims of the shooting.

She “used her training as a nurse” to help other victims “and then became a victim herself,” Hagar said Sunday, adding that it was “one of the most selfless acts I have ever seen.”

Sarah Taylor

Friday’s death and injuries caused mental anguish and left some families deprived of the spirits that give them strength each day. Shirley Taylor, 63, was described as a matriarch devoted to the family estate in nearby Chambersville, which has been rich for generations.

She single-handedly cared for her husband, who, according to her daughter Angela Atchley, suffered severely from diabetes. She cared for her own mother. She crocheted. She helped raise her grandchildren. She had a garden. And she often cooked for the family.

“Just the smell of food makes me kind of sick,” Atchley said. “I haven’t eaten anything.”

When asked what the world should know about Taylor, Atchley said she loved everyone but always put her family first.

“She was the hardest-working woman I have ever met in my life,” said the daughter.

Roy Burton Sturgis

The family confirmed that Sturgis was among those killed Friday. His obituary, released by Benton Funeral Home, where a funeral was planned for Friday, said his death was announced at Dallas County Medical Center.

He lived in nearby Kingsland, the obituary says, and his daughter Hanna was his pride and joy.

On a virtual tribute board linked in the obituary, some friends of the Sturgis family described him as a man of bravery, courage and sacrifice.

Family friend Marsha Helberg Waddill described Sturgis as an everyday hero, saying he was “always polite and brave enough to stand up to any playground bully who crossed his or her path,” she wrote.

He is survived by his daughter, his sisters Angelia Surgis and Sarah Sturgis, his brother Eddie Ray Sturgis, his stepson Braydon Pennington and Braydon’s daughter CourtLeigh, according to the obituary.

Ellen Shrum

As the owner of a flower shop for 20 years, Shrum became the center of social life in Fordyce. She could create a floral arrangement for any occasion, but she also had a hug, a smile or a listening ear for anyone who wanted to be touched, seen and heard, her family said.

On Sunday, son Tait Shrum joined his sisters Teresa Crutchfield, a teacher, and Tara Morgan, a business owner, to talk about their mother’s impact on the community.

Tait said it was unfortunate that the suspect in the shooting did not have the opportunity to meet Ellen Shrum, an unofficial life coach at her beloved Zion Baptist Church.

“She was like an angel on earth,” Tait said. “She loved everyone – even the man who took her life, even though she didn’t know him. She would have loved him and helped him.”

Husband Kenneth Shrum said the couple were a team that “worked together.” “We tried to overlook the bad and maximize the good,” he said.

Her adult children say their mother’s spirit lives on in the people in the community she helped over the years and in their own interactions.

Ellen Shrum was grocery shopping for a neighbor with cancer when she became ill, Tait said. After she planned to retire in 1999, she worked at Mad Butcher for a few months, her children said. She eventually worked at a bank for several years.

Ellen valued human relationships as the essence of a fulfilling life, her children said.

“Every time we visit here,” Crutchfield said, “our mother walks us to our car.”

Crutchfield said her mother taught her “compassion for others.” “We are so busy in our lives, we have to stick together and love each other,” she said.

No known motive

The motive for Friday morning’s shooting, which apparently began in the parking lot, remains unclear. Law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting told NBC News on Saturday that there was no evidence of any kind of extremism as a possible motive.

Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of New Edinburg, a community about 11 miles east of Fordyce, was arrested in connection with the shooting and booked into the Ouachita County Detention Center. He was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries Friday morning after exchanging gunfire with police officers.

Posey is charged with four counts of capital crimes, with additional charges pending, the Arkansas Department of Public Safety said in a news release.

Not much is known about the suspect’s background, and calls to people listed online as possible relatives and to phone numbers associated with his address were not answered, went to accounts no longer in use, or were not returned.

Hagar said Sunday that the suspect had only a very short criminal history, if any.

The suspect is listed with the U.S. Department of Transportation as a self-employed truck driver.

A video verified by NBC News but not revealing what happened beforehand shows a man in a parking lot firing a long gun. Some shots appeared to be aimed at vehicles.

Grocery store closed for now

The grocer said in a statement on Saturday that it was “shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence.”

“Our deepest condolences go out to the victims, their families and all those affected,” the store posted on Facebook. “We are truly grateful to our local law enforcement and first responders who arrived on scene to secure the area and arrest the suspect. Their quick and courageous actions helped prevent further harm. We cannot thank them enough for their dedication and service.”

The store will remain closed during the investigation, the Mad Butcher said, and employees will continue to be paid.

The attack followed a mass shooting in Oakland, California, that left 15 people injured during Juneteenth events on Wednesday. The same day, seven people were injured in a shooting in Philadelphia, authorities said.