On Saturday, Mar 19, 2022, gunshots erupted in Dumas, a small town in Arkansas. It was at the Hood-Nic event that has just returned after 2 years of interruption from the pandemic. The neighborhood picnic is hosted by a foundation that provides academic services, supplies, and scholarships to first-time college students living in a county with 23 percent of residents living in poverty according to the US Census.
The shooting started sometime after 6 pm, a bystander witnessed the incident, stating that two men were in a physical altercation when one of them pulled out a handgun and shot the other in the chest. However, this account of the event has not been verified by authorities. The shooting erupted with suddenness, with 12 or 15 shots heard and it resulted in one death and 27 people injured, including six children. The police did not give details during the press conference about the reasons for the altercation or the relationship between the two men, the director of the Arkansas State Police Col. Bill Bryant states that both men remain at large.
It was the largest mass shooting event in the United States in 2022 so far according to Gun Violence Archive. Around the same time in the region, there were 10 people injured and one shot in the head in Dallas; and four people were injured in Austin.
Read the news article on this mass shooting here.