Grocery store shooting that killed 3 leaves an Arkansas town in disbelief

FORDYCE, Ark. — Thomas and Sharon Brazil were sitting in their car late Friday morning in front of the only grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas, discussing what they wanted to buy to put on the grill that night. Then they noticed a man with a gun approaching them.

He looked at them, Thomas Brazil said, “and he shot.” The 65-year-old minister was shot in the forehead above his right eye. Sharon Brazil suffered cuts from broken glass. They went to the hospital but both survived. They were among the lucky ones.

All told, police said that the gunman killed three people and injured 10 after he opened fire at the Mad Butcher grocery store. On Saturday, this town of 3,400 people, about 70 miles south of Little Rock, was only beginning to absorb the impact of the bloodshed, as a few details began to emerge.

“I just don’t have the words,” said Kasey Langley, whose daughter owns a flower shop a few doors down from the Mad Butcher. “I woke up this morning thinking it was all a dream. This didn’t happen, but it did.”

Authorities did not release the names of those who died. But one of the victims was Shirley Kay Taylor, 63, according to Angela Atchley, her daughter. Atchley said her mother was killed standing at the checkout of the Mad Butcher, while she was doing her usual grocery shopping.

Taylor, who loved to cook and host small parties, had asked Atchley’s son if he wanted to join her shopping Friday. He did not, and now, “he’s kicking himself,” Atchley said.

“He was like, ‘I could have shielded her or something.’ I said, ‘Then, we’d be having two funerals.’”

Among those hurt were two law enforcement officers with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the Arkansas State Police, along with the suspect, Travis Eugene Posey, 44, of New Edinburg.

Posey will be charged with three counts of capital murder, police said, noting that additional charges were pending. An inmate registry for Ouachita County, which adjoins Dallas County, where the shooting took place, showed that Posey was being held there on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Authorities have not released any details on a possible motive behind the shooting, which appears to have occurred both inside the store and in the parking lot.

The suspect used a shotgun, according to a senior law enforcement official.

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