Arrest made in mass shooting at Arkansas car show that killed 1, injured 26

Written by on March 23, 2022

(DUMAS, Arkansas) — A man was arrested in connection with a mass shooting at an Arkansas car show that left more than two dozen people injured and one dead.

Brandon Deandra Knight, 22, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was arrested after being released from the hospital Wednesday morning, state police said. It was unclear why he was hospitalized.

He was charged with first-degree battery and aggravated assault, police said. He is being held at the Dumas City Jail and will make his first court appearance Thursday. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

“The state police investigation remains in an active status and no further information regarding the arrest is available at this hour,” the Arkansas State Police, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said in a statement.

The incident occurred Saturday evening in a parking lot in Dumas, about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock, when gunfire “swept across a crowd attending a local car show,” state police said.

Arkansas State Police, in addition to other state and county authorities, soon arrived at the scene, and first responders transported the injured to five different Arkansas hospitals.

Twenty-six people were wounded by gunfire, including five children ranging in age from 19 months to 11 years old, state police said. Additionally, one person, identified by police as 23-year-old Cameron Shaffer of Jacksonville, died at the Dumas hospital.

Police initially said 28 people were shot in the incident, including the fatality, though later amended that number to 27.

Authorities said earlier this week they believed that two people were involved in a gunfight, and that a mass shooting was not intended. There was no prior intelligence that violence was to take place at the car show before the shooting took place, authorities said.

There is no indication that Shaffer was involved in the gunfight, state police said.

Earlier this week, authorities indicated they were looking for two suspects in the shooting and have been urging anyone with information about the events leading up to the shooting to come forward.

The Dumas Police Department arrested one person who left the scene and fit the description of one of the suspects on “unrelated charges,” Col. Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police said during a press briefing Sunday.

“It’s shocking,” he told reporters. “We have a small community, a farming community in Dumas — 5,000 people. And then we have an incident of multi victims. It’s just, you don’t expect that from small-town Arkansas.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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