Police announce fourth death in Arkansas grocery store shooting

A fourth victim in an Arkansas grocery store shooting died Saturday night, state police announced.

Police identified the deceased as Ellen Shrum, 81.

Several others were injured in the shooting that occurred just after 11:30 a.m. Friday both inside and outside the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a town about 70 miles south of Little Rock.

Thirteen people were struck in the shooting spree, including two law enforcement officers, Arkansas State Police said. None of the four deceased victims are officers.

The three others who were killed were earlier identified by police and family members as Callie Weems, 23; Roy Sturgis, 50; and Shirley Taylor, 62.

Seven other civilians — five women and two men, ranging in age from 20 to 65 years old — survived their injuries, police said Saturday night. Four of those seven remain in the hospital, including one woman who is in critical condition.

One Fordyce police officer, James Johnson, 31, was released Saturday morning from a hospital in Little Rock, police said. He was treated for a gunshot wound.

The suspect, 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, who police said will be charged with four counts of capital murder, was also injured in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement. Other charges are pending.

After receiving care for his wounds, which police said were non-life-threatening, the suspect was taken into custody by the Arkansas State Police and booked into the Ouachita County Detention Center.

It wasn’t clear if Posey has a lawyer, and the public defender’s office for Dallas County, Arkansas, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. Attempts to reach possible relatives via phone calls were unsuccessful.

The suspect has a very limited criminal history, if any at all, police said Sunday at a news conference. Colonel Mike Hagar with the Arkansas State Police said he was using a 12 gauge shotgun in the shooting spree.

Police have yet to determine a motive. Law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting told NBC News on Saturday that there are no indications of any sort of extremism as a possible motive.

Hagar said at the Sunday news conference that the suspect appeared to act at random, “firing indiscriminately” at employees and civilians at the store on Friday, without focus on one specific person or place.

Hagar said there appears to be no personal connection between the shooter and the victims, calling them “victims of opportunity.” Hagar also noted that most of the victims were women.

Witnesses recounted the horror, with some saying the gunfire first began in the grocery store’s parking lot. A meat cutter who works at the Mad Butcher said he heard gunshots and glass shattering from the back of the store and made it to safety out the back door.

The Arkansas State Police are investigating the shooting.