The incredibly selfless act of a nurse who was shot to death in an Arkansas grocery store shooting has been revealed, and the new mom is now hailed as a hero.
Callie Weems, 23, was among four people killed and 11 wounded during the shooting shortly before noon Friday at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of 3,200 people about 70 miles south of Little Rock.
When suspected gunman Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of New Edinburg, opened fire in the store, Weems rushed to help another person who had been hit.
While she had the opportunity to escape the shooter, her efforts to provide aid to a complete stranger will now be remembered as her final act, before becoming a victim herself.
Weems’ response to help was instinctive and came from a three-generation family of nurses.
An Arkansas nurse, Callie Weems, 23, who was caught in a mass shooting at a grocery store had a chance to escape the shooter, but stopped to help another victim.
Four people were killed and 10 injured in a shooting at a grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas
“Instead of fleeing the store, she stopped to render aid in one of the most selfless acts I have ever seen,” Col. Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas State Police, said of the nurse.
As terrified bystanders ducked and sought cover amid a flurry of gunfire, Weems stayed behind to help.
“Instead of running from obvious danger, Callie Weems began using her training as a nurse to render aid to a gunshot victim in one of the most selfless acts I have ever seen,” said Col. Mike Hagar, director of Arkansas State Police. he said of the nurse, applauding her actions.
His father, Tommy Weems, told the Arkansas Democratic Gazette: ‘He died doing what he always does: Helping.
‘There is no instruction manual for this. These are the first tears I shed. There is anger and sadness, pain. It doesn’t come in any order. Your world as you know it ends.’
Weems had been enjoying her new role as a mother in the months before the gunman took her life, caring for 10-month-old baby Ivy Mae.
“He took a very special person out of this world,” added distraught father Tommy.
Weems’ devastated mother, Helen Browning, said she initially believed her daughter was safe because she turned on her location tracker when she heard about the mass shooting and saw she was in the hospital.
“I’m thinking, ‘She’s at work. She came to help,” Browning said. fox16.
Callie Weems had recently become a new mother and adored her 10-month-old baby.
Callie Weems seemed to be a natural mother as she doted on little Ivy Mae.
On the morning of the shooting, Weems was amazed that her little girl had let her sleep until 9 in the morning.
Weems had marveled that her little girl had let her sleep until 9 a.m. that morning.
“I bet you feel like a new mom,” Browning recalled texting her back. It was the last conversation they had.
But she said her fears increased when she couldn’t locate her daughter, and she said the tragic truth dawned on her when she rushed to the scene with Weem’s stepfather, Bruce Grice.
“My best friend was standing there and I said, ‘Kristie, tell me my baby is okay.’ and she said, ‘I can’t.'” Browning said, “And that’s when I broke down.”
The suspect, identified as Travis Eugene Posey, 44, was wounded in a shootout with police and will be charged with four counts of capital murder, authorities said.
Investigators have yet to determine a motive for what Hagar called a “completely random and senseless act.”
Browning mourned the loss of Weems and revealed that he also knew Posey since he was a child.
“I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to ruin families lives,” he asked.
Browning said Posey went to school with his younger sister and never would have thought he would do something so violent.
She plans to raise Ivy now.
“She will know that her mother loved her,” he said. “And that she was the sunshine in mom’s eyes.”
TO GoFundMe It has been created to help raise funds for the baby and pay funeral expenses.
Weems’ heartbroken mother said after his death: “I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to ruin the families lives.”
Callie Weems with her mother, Helen Browning, left, who will now raise her baby.
Law enforcement officers work the scene of a shooting at the Mad Butcher grocery store.
Col. Mike Hagar, center, at the podium, answers questions from the media during a news conference Sunday about Friday’s deadly shooting at an Arkansas grocery store.
Cellphone footage captured Posey in the parking lot with a long gun, allegedly shooting at the Mad Butcher store and police arriving at the scene.
Hagar said the shooter began shooting indiscriminately in the parking lot and then inside the store, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol and shooting primarily pellets.
Police said Sunday that Posey’s motive was still unclear, but that he did not appear to have a personal connection to any of the victims.
“During the incident, we saw the best and the worst of humanity,” Hagar said, praising the six police officers who intervened and placed themselves between the shooter and civilians.
Two of the injured were officers, police said.
A total of four people were shot dead and nine injured. Authorities say the motive for the massacre remains unclear.
Travis Posey, 44, has been identified by authorities as the alleged gunman in the shooting. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being hit in a shootout with police.
Hagar said the officers and deputies who responded to the scene knew the shooter and the victims, which made the attack particularly difficult and personal.
Police said Posey, who was in custody at the Ouachita County Detention Center, will be charged with four counts of capital murder.
In addition to Weems, the fatal victims were identified as Shirley Taylor, 62, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81.
The surviving victims are between 20 and 65 years old.