'I just want my baby back' Mother of Fordyce shooting victim mourns loss of daughter | KLRT

FORDYCE, Ark. – A mass shooting in Fordyce has left several families in deep pain after losing their loved ones.

When Helen Browning first learned there had been a mass shooting in Fordyce, she said her first instinct was to check if her daughter, Callie Weems, 23, was a nurse at the Fordyce Medical Center. Dallas County.

“I checked Callie's location through good old Live 360 ​​and it showed she was in the hospital,” Browning said. “I'm like, 'She's at work.' She came to help: “There was…she was in town…”

With a busy tone from the hospital and radio silence from Callie, Helen and Callie's stepfather, Bruce Grice, rushed to the scene to be confronted with the horrible truth.

“My best friend was standing right there and I said, 'Kristie, tell me my baby is okay.' and she said, 'I can't,'” Browning said. “And that’s when I broke.”

Callie Weems, mother of 10-month-old Ivy, was shot and killed while shopping, the victim of a mass shooting her parents said they couldn't understand.

“I just want to know why Joey Posey woke up this morning and decided he had to ruin his family's life,” Browning said.

The grief runs deeper for the family because they were related to another of the three victims killed in the shooting.

“Our niece’s father was there too and he’s no longer with us,” Browning said. “So it’s a double whammy for our family.”

Now Helen has a new call to make: how to raise her granddaughter, who has suddenly found herself without a mother.

“Ivy was his saving grace just as she was mine,” Browning said. “And now she becomes mine too.”