«My son almost froze to death»
Several families and grocery store workers hid in a freezer to survive the mass shooting in Arkansas. “I just want my baby back,” said the mother of one of the three killed, while 10 others were wounded in the shooting.
Families who were shopping at a grocery store in Arkansas, where Friday's massacre killed three people and injured 10 others, hid in the freezer in a desperate attempt to escape the attacker's sight, according to reports.
How The Guardian writes that chilling details emerged as authorities identified the alleged shooter and media reports named at least two people killed at the Mad Butcher store in Fordyce.
The first person identified as killed was 23-year-old nurse Callie Weems, who worked at the Dallas County, Arkansas, medical center, according to what her mother, Helen Browning, told local news station KLRT.
It is reported that that Weems was shopping on her day off when she was shot, leaving her 10-month-old daughter to survive.
Helen Browning told KLRT she had an ominous feeling when she couldn’t reach Weems after news of the shooting broke. She said she hoped Callie had just gone to the hospital to help her co-workers who were responding to the mass shooting.
“My best friend was standing right there, and I said … ‘Tell me my baby is okay,’ and she was like, ‘I can’t,’” Helen Browning told KLRT. “And that’s when I just broke down. I just want my baby back.”
Weems’ family said another family member, her niece’s father, was also killed in the shooting.
KTHV also reported that Shirley Kay Taylor, 63, was killed in Friday's mass shooting, citing information provided by her daughter, Angela Atchley. Atchley told the news station that Taylor doted on her children and grandchildren, especially because of her love of cooking.
«She was the hardest working woman in the world,» Atchley said, according to KTHV.
Meanwhile, CNN interviewed Katrina Doherty, 39, about hiding in a grocery store freezer with her 18-year-old daughter and four-year-old son after the shooting began. She said she couldn't find a way to escape after hearing up to 10 gunshots.
She said she didn't have a cellphone to call police, and other people in the freezer were praying and cried, trying to hear what was happening in the store.
“We just sat there and prayed. I was in a panic,” Katrina Doherty told CNN. “My son almost froze to death.” We tried to calm him down, but he said that he wanted to see his dad. It seemed to me that we had been there forever. We stayed there for about 15 minutes. I asked the Lord to protect everyone. I just prayed. Another woman was praying. She was crying.”
At some point, the workers saw a dead man outside the freezer door. The group of people in the freezer remained there until one of the store employees heard police outside and they were all escorted out of the store.
According to meat store manager Matthew Gill, the man entered the grocery store with a shotgun and then exchanged gunfire with police who arrived on the scene to confront him.
Dallas County Sheriff's Office officials as well as police of Arkansas arrived at the store around 11:30 a.m. Friday. In addition to the three killed, two law enforcement officers and eight civilians were wounded in the ensuing shootout.
Authorities identified the suspect in the attack as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey. Posey, of New Edinburgh, Arkansas, suffered a graze on his head in the shootout with police, according to investigators.
Police booked him into jail on three counts of capital murder, with several other charges pending.
Helen Browning reportedly knew Posey since childhood, local news station KTHV reported.
“I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to go and destroy the lives of families,” Browning told KLRT.
According to the online archive the Gun Violence Archive, As of Saturday evening, there had been at least 236 mass shootings in the United States this year, an average of more than one per day.
That number included the Louisville, Kentucky, nightclub shooting in Saturday morning, which left one person dead and seven others injured.
The online archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more shooting victims were injured or killed, The Guardian explains.
Such a high rate of daily mass shootings in the United States has prompted a number of public calls for stricter gun control. But the US federal government has been largely unwilling or unable to heed these calls.
Fordyce is a town of about 3,200 people. It is about 65 miles (105 km) south of Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas.