FORREST CITY, Ark. (AP) — Two police officers were wounded and a gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire at a Walmart store in eastern Arkansas Monday morning, authorities said.
Mayor Cedric Williams said at a news conference that the officers were hospitalized soon after the shooting at the store in Forrest City, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) west of Memphis.
Arkansas State Police said in a Facebook post that two Forrest City police officers were injured in the shooting at the Walmart in in Forrest City. Authorities have not released the names of the people who were shot or the circumstances of the shooting.
Walmart spokesman Scott Pope said the company was working with the Forrest City Police Department with its investigation but declined further comment. Walmart is based in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Tammy Priddy, 57, works at Simmons Eye Center in the Walmart. She said she was preparing patient records for the day when she heard eight shots. She said she hid under a counter in the lab until the gunshots stopped.
“The first two shots kind of startled me, and then a coworker came in and said it was gunfire,” Priddy said.
She and a coworker ran from the building and officers outside the Walmart ordered her to get as far away from the building as possible. She was not injured.
“I was too afraid to think of anything except to get to safety,” she said. “We kept our minds straight to where we were safe and we were able to get to safety.”
Forrest City is about 45 miles (70 kilometers) west of Memphis and about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of Little Rock.
The Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division was investigating the shooting.
