Small Arkansas town struggles to move forward after mass shooting
DUMAS, Ark. — The small city of empty storefronts and vacant lots that is Dumas has seen its population drain away steadily over the decades. But each spring, people of the diaspora have made their way along two-lane country roads, driving through cotton fields and catfish farms and finally into Dumas for Hood-Nic, the community’s big “neighborhood picnic,” which serves as an informal homecoming.
It is typically a low-key day full of preachers, rappers, raffles, food trucks and a contest for custom-car owners. The event raises money for scholarships and promotes nonviolence. But this year, organizer Sylvester Spinks Jr. said, something “allowed the devil to slide in.”
An evening eruption of gunfire in a crowd of roughly 1,500 people at the Hood-Nic festival March 19 resulted in the largest mass shooting in the United States this year, leaving a 23-year-old man dead and 26 other people wounded, including five children. Last week, authorities arrested Brandon D. Knight, 22, a North Little Rock man who, according to a police affidavit, admitted to firing a handgun at a man who he said had robbed and shot an acquaintance that day.
Police found 17 spent shell casings that they said were compatible with a .40 caliber Glock handgun belonging to Knight.
But Arkansas state police have not fully explained what happened, and said their investigation was ongoing.
Dumas, a city of 4,000 people 90 miles southeast of Little Rock, seemed united in anger and grief: Nearly everyone in town seemed to have some connection to the families of the wounded.
And there was grave concern that another victim of gun violence could be Hood-Nic itself, a grassroots event that has united scattered friends and family for years and served as a bright spot in a place of grinding poverty and diminished opportunities.
The solutions proposed for Hood-Nic, and for Dumas, reflect the priorities and anxieties of a nation that is reeling from what recent data suggests is a 30% rise in murders since 2019. Some residents wondered if metal detectors and surveillance cameras would help. The Rev. Arthur L. Hunt Jr., a local activist, said the underlying social problems could be ameliorated by his pet project — a proposed multimillion-dollar arts and technology college.
Flora J. Simon, the mayor of Dumas, said she was not sure if anything could be done to prevent another shootout. “If two people want to fight, I don’t care how many people, how many teachers you’ve got on duty on the playground,” said Simon, a retired high school science teacher.