Police: 3 people shot at Walmart in eastern Arkansas

FORREST CITY, Ark. — At least three people were shot Monday morning at a Walmart in eastern Arkansas, police said.

The shooting was reported mid-morning in Forrest City, a dispatcher with the Forrest City Police Department told The Associated Press.

Forrest City Police dispatcher Chastity Boyd told The Associated Press that three people were shot inside the Walmart, but she didn’t have information about the extent of their injuries.

Boyd said she doesn’t know whether a suspect has been detained.

“I’m scared,” said Kim Bery, an employee who answered the phone at an autoparts store across the street from the Walmart.

Bery said she could see a lot of police at the Walmart and that employees from the store appeared to have been evacuated into the parking lot.

Authorities are working to secure the scene, police said. Forrest City is about 45 miles (70 kilometres) west of Memphis and about 85 miles (135 kilometres) east of Little Rock.

It’s not the first time a Walmart store has been the scene of a shooting. A gunman killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3.

The retailer came under criticism for having insufficient security at the store on that day has since quietly expanded security at all its El Paso stores to include an armed off-duty police officer and a security guard.

A spokeswoman for the company said in November that the hiring of off-duty officers in El Paso was not a blanket policy. It’s unclear what security measures were in place at the Forrest City store on Monday.

The Associated Press