Callie Weems, 23, a female nurse from Fordyce, Arkansas, and identified as White/Caucasian, was killed on June 21, 2024, during a mass shooting at the Mad Butcher grocery store in her hometown. When gunfire erupted late that morning, she moved toward the wounded to help; authorities later said she was shot while trying to treat another victim, a final act consistent with the way friends and family remembered her.
Her death was one of four in a burst of violence that jolted a small community where many knew one another by name.
Investigators detailed that the attack began around 11:38 a.m. in the store’s parking lot and continued inside. Four civilians were killed and several others wounded, including two law enforcement officers among the injured. State officials later identified those who died as 23-year-old Callie Weems, 50-year-old Roy Sturgis, 62-year-old Shirley Taylor, and 81-year-old Ellen Shrum; one victim succumbed to injuries the day after the shooting. The Mad Butcher, the town’s only grocery, quickly became a sprawling crime scene as emergency responders converged and the community absorbed the loss.
Police named the suspect as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey of New Edinburg. He was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with officers, treated for non-life-threatening injuries, then released to Arkansas State Police custody. Authorities announced initial charges of capital murder on the day of the attack, noting that additional counts would follow as the scope of injuries and damage became clear. He was transported to the Ouachita County Detention Center while the Criminal Investigation Division continued its work.
In the months that followed, prosecutors secured a definitive outcome. Posey pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder and received life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 220 years. Families offered searing statements at sentencing, closing a legal chapter even as the town continued to mourn. Civil litigation also emerged: at least one woman injured in the attack filed a lawsuit against Posey seeking damages tied to medical costs and lost income.
