Travis Posey is a killer from Arkansas who during a mass shooting would kill four people and injure almost a dozen more
According to court documents Travis Posey would enter the Fordyce’s Mad Butcher grocery store and open fire killing four people and injuring eleven more, Ellen Shrum, 81; Callie Weems, 23; Roy Sturgis, 50; and Shirley Taylor, 63 would be killed; and the attempted murder of James Johnson, Sharon Brazil, Thomas Brazil, Brittney Sullivent, Demaria Cooper, Kasey Harbour, Latoya Allen, Silas Compton, Jacqueline Curb, Ronald Clayton and Judy Clayton
Travis Posey would be arrested and would eventually plead guilty to four counts of murder and eleven counts of attempted murder. The plea bargain calls for a life sentence for each of the murder counts and twenty years each for the attempted murders. It will be up to the judge whether the sentences will be served consecutively or concurrently. If convicted at trial Posey would have possibly faced the death penalty
Travis Posey Case
According to attorneys, the man accused in the deadly June 2024 Fordyce mass shooting has pleaded guilty during a pre-trial hearing.
Travis Eugene Posey, a 45-year-old from New Edinburg, appeared in the Ouachita County Detention Center Courtroom during a Monday hearing and pleaded guilty to all charges.
Posey was facing four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder for the June 21 mass shooting at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce where four people were killed and 11 other people were injured.
Records show Posey first appeared in court on June 25, 2024, and entered a not guilty plea. His sentencing is set for Monday, Aug. 4.
The June 21 mass shooting shook the town of Fordyce. The victims were identified as 23-year-old Callie Weems, 50-year-old Roy Sturgis, 52-year-old Shirley Taylor and 81-year-old Ellen Shrum.
Investigators have not released any motive to the shooting.
The Plea Agreement filed with the court shows that Prosecutor Jeffery Rogers will recommend life without parole for each of the capital murder charges and a 20-year prison term for each of the attempted capital murder charges.
https://www.kark.com/crime/travis-posey-pleads-guilty-to-fordyce-2024-mad-butcher-mass-shooting
Travis Posey News
Travis Posey on Monday pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder in the June 2024 mass shooting at Fordyce’s Mad Butcher grocery store, with sentencing set for early August.
In the Ouachita County courtroom, Posey stood before many of the people who lost loved ones or were wounded in the shooting as he told 13th Judicial Circuit Judge Spencer Singleton he admitted to the shooting June 21, 2024, and understood that his actions led to the carnage on that day.
Posey initially pleaded innocent and a trial was set to begin Aug. 4, but changed his plea Monday. In return, the state sought life sentences for the four murder convictions and 20 years each for the attempted murder convictions, 13th District Prosecutor Jeff Rogers said.
Rogers left whether those sentences were served concurrently or consecutively up to Singleton, who set the sentencing hearing for Aug. 4, allowing time for the prosecution to gather impact statements from the victims.
Singleton read each count to Posey, including the name of the person killed or nearly killed, as Posey quietly but matter of factly replied “guilty.”
Posey was convicted of the murder of Ellen Shrum, 81; Callie Weems, 23; Roy Sturgis, 50; and Shirley Taylor, 63; and the attempted murder of James Johnson, Sharon Brazil, Thomas Brazil, Brittney Sullivent, Demaria Cooper, Kasey Harbour, Latoya Allen, Silas Compton, Jacqueline Curb, Ronald Clayton and Judy Clayton.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/jul/21/posey-pleads-guilty-to-4-counts-of-capitol-murder
Travis Posey Sentencing
An Arkansas man who killed four people and injured 11 others in a mass shooting at a grocery store last year was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
A state judge sentenced Travis Posey to four life sentences for each count of capital murder. Posey was also sentenced to 220 years in prison for 11 counts of attempted capital murder.
Travis Posey pleaded guilty last month to four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder, one of his attorneys confirmed to CBS News, for the shooting that occurred last summer at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles south of Little Rock.
Judge Spencer Singleton handed down the sentence after testimony from the victims’ family members during a hearing in Fordyce.
“You don’t deserve to be part of our story,” Hanna Sturgis said during the hearing, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Sturgis’ father, Roy Sturgis, was killed during the shooting.
Travis Posey, who did not speak during Monday’s hearing, has been held without bond since the shooting and previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges.
Prosecutors and police have not publicly identified any motive for Posey, who was shot and injured by officers who exchanged fire with him. Police have said he did not appear to have a personal connection to any of the victims.
The four people killed were identified as Shirley Taylor, 62, Callie Weems, 23, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81.
During the midday shooting, Posey carried a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol and a bandolier with dozens of extra shotgun rounds, authorities said. He fired most, if not all, of the rounds using the shotgun, opening fire at people in the parking lot before entering the store and firing “indiscriminately” at customers and employees, police said. Multiple victims were found inside the store and in the parking lot, police said.
Travis Posey lived in New Edinburg, a small town of about 150 people located southeast of Fordyce.
One of the surviving victims filed a civil lawsuit last year against Posey, CBS affiliate KTHV reported, seeking damages for medical care and loss of income following the shooting. Attorneys for the woman have requested that a judge enter a default judgment against Posey, as he has not responded to the complaint. A judge has not ruled on that request.
The shooting temporarily closed the only grocery store in Fordyce, prompting food distribution sites to be set up around the community. The Mad Butcher reopened 11 days after the shooting.
The Arkansas shooting was among similar incidents at a grocery store in recent years. 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.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/travis-eugene-posey-mad-butcher-mass-shooting-prison-life-sentence
Travis Posey Now
ADC Number
188221
Name:
Posey, Travis E
Race
CAUCASIAN
Sex
MALE
Hair Color
BLACK
Eye Color
BLUE
Height
72 inches
Weight
220 lbs.
Birth Date
07/26/1979
Initial Receipt Date
08/04/2025
Facility
Varner Supermax
Facility Address
320 Hwy. 388, Gould, AR 71643 Map
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 400 Grady, AR 71644-0600
Custody Classification
C4
Good Time Class
II
PE/TE Date*
Life WO
Total Time*
ADC Incarcerations**
1
