Gunman killed, 2 officers injured
FORREST CITY, Ark. — Two police officers were wounded and a gunman was killed Monday in an exchange of gunfire at a Walmart store in eastern Arkansas, authorities said.
Forrest City Police Chief Deon Lee said one of the officers was taken to a hospital in Memphis, about 45 miles away. “He’s going to be OK,” Lee said.
The officers responded to the Forrest City Walmart after police received a report of a man who was making threats and was “kind of talking out of his head,” Lee said at a news conference. Arkansas State Police Spokesman Bill Sadler said local authorities have identified the suspect as Bobby Joe Gibbs, 40, of Forrest City.
Lee identified the injured officers as Lt. Eric Varner and Detective Eugene Watlington. Both are assigned to the criminal investigation department and neither was wearing a bulletresistant vest, Lee said.
“Due to their heroism and quick response, no civilians were injured,” Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams said.
Walmart spokesman Scott Pope said the company was helping police with the investigation. Once the State Police Criminal Investigation Division completes its probe, it will forward the findings to the local prosecutor to review the officers’ use of deadly force.
Tammy Priddy works at Simmons Eye Center in the Walmart. She said she was preparing patient records when she heard eight shots. She hid under a counter in the lab until the gunshots stopped then ran from the store. Officers outside Walmart ordered her to get as far away from the building as possible. She was not injured.
Police formed a perimeter with yellow crime scene tape around the
Walmart parking lot after the shooting. The store was closed and employees were sent home.
Mary Martin, who said she was Gibbs’ aunt, went to the Walmart after she heard about the shooting. She said Gibbs didn’t have a job, but had previously worked as a DJ.
“He was a good person. He loved his family,” she said.
When asked about the description of Gibbs “talking out of his head” at the store, Martin responded: “That doesn’t sound like Bobby.”
It’s not the first time in recent months that a Walmart store has been the scene of a shooting. A man was injured in a shooting at a Walmart in Memphis earlier this month, three people were fatally shot at a Walmart in Duncan, Okla., in November, and a gunman killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3.