Shooting at grocery store in Arkansas kills three and wounds 10 others, police say

Bullet holes in a front window at a Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas, after today's fatal shooting. Photo / AP

A shooter opened fire at a grocery store in Arkansas, United States, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including two law enforcement officers, police say.

Today’s shooting occurred just after 11.30am (local time) at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3200 people located 104km south of Little Rock.

Responding officers shot the suspected shooter, whose injuries were not life-threatening, Arkansas Department of Public Safety director Mike Hagar said at a news conference. The two shot officers sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police say officers responding to the incident at a grocery store in Arkansas shot the suspected shooter, whose injuries were not life-threatening. Photo / AP

The remaining injuries ranged from “not life-threatening to extremely critical”, Hagar said.

“It’s tragic, our hearts are broken,” he said.

It’s the latest mass shooting where a grocery store is its backdrop. A white supremacist in 2022 killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. That shooting came a little more than a year after one at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, where 10 people were killed.

Police did not immediately say whether the shooting occurred inside or outside the store. Hagar said they expected to release more information later today.

Video posted on social media showed at least one person lying in the carpark, while another captured multiple gunshots ringing out.

Images from reporters on the scene showed a slew of bullet holes in the grocery store’s window. In video footage, local and state agencies could be seen responding to the scene, with at least one medical helicopter landing nearby.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she had been briefed on the shooting.

“I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives,” Sanders posted on the social media platform X. “My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this.”

David Rodriguez, 58, had stopped at his local fuel station in Fordyce to fill up his car when he heard what he thought were fireworks from a nearby vendor’s stand.

Law enforcement officers work at the scene of a shooting at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas. Photo / AP

“We heard a few little pops,” he said.

He then saw people running from the Mad Butcher grocery store into the carpark and one person lying on the ground. He began recording video with his phone before the gunfire escalated.

“The police started to show up, and then there was massive gunfire and ambulances pulling up,” he said. “The bullets were just flying.”