The incredibly selfless act of a nurse who was gunned down in an Arkansas grocery store shootinghas been revealed, with the new mom now hailed as a hero.
Callie Weems, 23, was among four people killed and 11 wounded during the shooting shortly before midday on Friday at the Mad Butcher grocery in Fordyce, a town of 3,200 people about 70 miles south of Little Rock.
As alleged gunman 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey of New Edinburg opened fire at the store, Weems rushed to help another person who had been hit.
While she had an opportunity to escape the shooter, her efforts to render aid to a total stranger will now be remembered as her final act, before she became a victim herself.
Weems' response to help was instinctual, coming from a family of three generations of nurses.
An Arkansas nurse, Callie Weems, 23, who was caught up in a grocery store mass shooting had the opportunity to escape from the shooter, but instead stopped to help another victim
Four people were killed and 10 wounded 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've ever seen,' Colonel Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas State police, said of the nurse
While panicked bystanders ducked and scrambled for cover amid a barrage of gunfire, Weems stayed behind to help.
'Instead of fleeing from the 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've ever seen,' Colonel Mike Hagar, director of the Arkansas State police, said of the nurse, applauding her actions.
Her father, Tommy Weems, told theArkansas Democrat Gazette: 'She died doing what she always does: Helping.
'There's no instruction manual for this. These are the first tears I've shed. There's anger and sorrow, hurt. It doesn't come in any order. Your world as you know it ends.'
Weems had been reveling in her new role as a mom in the months before the gunman took her life, looking after 10-month-old babyIvy Mae.
'He took a very special person out of this world,' distraught dad, Tommy, added.
Weems' devastated mother, Helen Browning, said that she initially believed her daughter was safe, because she turned on her location tracker when she heard of the mass shooting and saw she was at the hospital.
'I'm thinking, "She’s at work. She came in to help,"' Browning told Fox16.
Callie Weems had recently become a new mother and doted on her 10-month-old baby girl
Callie Weems appeared to be a natural mother as she doted on little baby Ivy Mae
On the morning of the shooting,Weems had been marveling that her little girl had let her sleep in until 9am that morning
Weems had been marveling that her little girl had let her sleep in until 9am that morning.
'I bet you feel like a new mom,' Browning recalled texting back.It was the last conversation they had.
But she said her fears were raised when she couldn't get hold of her daughter, and said the tragic truth dawned on her when she raced to the scene with Weem's stepfather, Bruce Grice.
'My best friend was standing right there and I said, "Kristie, tell me my baby’s OK." and she said, "I can’t."' Browning said: 'And that’s when I just broke.''
The suspect gunman, identified as 44-year-old Travis Eugene Posey, was wounded in a shootout with police and will be charged with four counts of capital murder, officials said.
Investigators have yet to determine a motive for what Hagar called a 'completely random, senseless act.'
Browning lamented the loss of Weems and revealed that she had also known Posey since he was a child.
'I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to go ruin families' lives,' she asked.
Browning said Posey went to school with her youngest sister, and she never would have thought he could do something so violent.
She plans to raise Ivy now.
'She will know that her mother loved her,' she said. 'And that she was the sunshine of momma's eyes.'
A GoFundMe has been set up to help raise funds for the baby and pay for funeral expenses.
Weems' heartbroken mother said after her death: 'I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he needed to go ruin families' lives?'
Callie Weems is seen alongside 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 podium, answers questions from the media during a news conference on Sunday regarding Friday's deadly shooting at an Arkansas grocery store
Cellphone footage captured Posey in the parking lot with a long gun, allegedly shooting into the Mad Butcher store and at police arriving on the scene.
Hagar said the shooter began firing indiscriminately in the parking lot and then inside the store, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol and firing mostly buckshot.
Police said on Sunday that Posey's motive was still unclear, but he appeared to have no personal connection to any of the victims.
'During the incident, we observed the very best and the very worst of humanity,' Hagar said, praising six responding police officers who placed themselves between the shooter and civilians.
Two of the wounded were officers, police said.
A total of four people were shot dead with nine injured. Authorities say the motive for the massacre remains unclear
Travis Posey, 44, has been identified by law enforcement as the alleged gunman in the shooting. He was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being hit in a shoot-out with cops
Hagar said the officers and deputies who responded to the scene knew the shooter and the victims, making 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.
Besides Weems, the fatal victims were identified as Shirley Taylor, 62, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81.
The surviving victims range in age from 20 to 65.
