Man who experienced Fordyce shooting speaks after trying to stop shooter

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – As the entire Fordyce community tries to recover from the deadly June 21 shooting, a man is recovering in a Little Rock hospital after throwing himself into the line of fire Friday.

On June 21, four people were killed and 10 injured along with officers at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce.

Arkansas State Police officials said they arrested suspect Travis Posey, 44, who was armed with a shotgun.

Silas Compton, a Kingsland native, said he works as a maintenance worker for the Arkansas Department of Transportation and, although he wasn’t trained to find himself in such situations, he has felt the call for help.

“I’m just tired of all the shooting,” Compton said.

Compton said he was in Fordyce that day shopping at the pharmacy that is across the street from his cancer-stricken wife’s grocery store.

“I saw him (Posey) cross there. He had a shotgun in his hand and he was shooting out the window,” Compton said.

When the chaos began, Compton says he chose to go in a different direction, after Posey.

“I don’t know why, I guess it was righteous indignation, it’s all I could think of and the next thing I know I’m in the mad butcher.” Compton said. “I shout at him to stop. I thought about all the poor people out there who had nowhere to go and I tried to save as many as I could.

A mission that he intended to maintain even in the line of fire.

“He turned around. I felt hit in the head and saw blood coming out,” Compton said.

Compton says he was able to go outside where he saw an elderly woman and tried to warn her from running away.

“I told him you need to leave these races, get in this car and get out of here, this guy is shooting and killing people,” Compton said.

Compton says after that he passed out and isn’t sure if the woman survived or not, but thinks she could have been one of the victims.

He says after passing out he was taken to hospital where parts of him are black and blue after several shotgun pellets were found.

“I have one on my neck here, one on my scalp, one on my body and several on my back,” Compton said.

He says he doesn’t think he’s a hero, but others like his colleague Myla Rawls.

“He’s always one to run and help where he can,” Rawls said.

“If one person was saved, that would make me happy and good, because that’s one less person that would die because of this madness,” Compton said.

Colleagues in Compton are raising money for him as he recovers in hospital. He says he’s not sure how long his recovery will take, but he’s grateful to be able to see his wife and two children again.