The annual Christmas parade in Helena-West Helena was canceled after gunfire started Saturday on Plaza Street just before parade floats were to begin lining up there.
Mayor Kevin Smith, who was to ride in the parade, arrived at 5 p.m. -- about an hour after the shooting.
Smith said the shooting appeared to be a "reprisal-type situation" related to an incident a week or so ago. He said two people had been arrested, including the primary shooter.
Smith said he hopes the shooting is a turning point in the city's effort to fight gun violence.
"I hope this is a wake-up call not just to me but to all our elected officials and our citizens," said Smith. "I think this Christmas parade is a good opportunity to get the attention of our community -- to get them to amp up their efforts to be heard by all their elected officials that they want something done and they expect something to be done."
Smith said he will ask the City Council tonight for a citywide curfew. He also plans to ask Gov. Asa Hutchinson for more Arkansas State Police troopers in the area and for additional funding for more SkyCop audio and video surveillance cameras. He said the installation of seven SkyCop cameras helped the city lower its homicide rate by 50% this year.
Smith said he will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to release funds from a previously announced $1 million grant to the city. That way he can hire 10 additional police officers as soon as possible. Smith said the city has fewer than 20 officers who patrol the streets.
"We're really just outnumbered and outgunned," said Smith. "We have over 1,000 guns in our evidence locker right now that we have confiscated from crime scenes and so forth, and we confiscate more every day."
He said some of those guns are "fully automatic, military grade weapons designed to execute people, and they are in the hands of people who want to harm others."
Smith said much of the gun violence in the city involves gangs and drugs.
He said the city plans to implement tip411, which allows anonymous crime tips, and he plans to "reinvigorate" the city's Crime Stoppers program.
"I want our people to feel safe -- that's the bottom line," said the mayor.
Smith said the shooting had nothing to do with the parade itself, but organizers decided to cancel the parade just to be safe.
"The sad thing is so many people worked so hard for that parade and also planned to go to that parade," he said. "We all are disappointed, and this highlights the fact that we have too many terroristic shootings in our community, like other communities are experiencing."
Karen Williams, one of the parade organizers, said the parade committee would meet to discuss whether the parade could be rescheduled.
On Saturday, Laketha Brown wrote on Facebook, "A parade can be rescheduled; that's not an option with death."
Smith said the Christmas parade was canceled the previous two years because of the covid-19 pandemic.
John Charles Edwards said he's proud of the organizers.
"I think they need to take some sober satisfaction in the way they handled this situation for the benefit of the people of this community," said Edwards, who is general counsel and the economic development director for Helena Harbor. "I encourage them either to have the parade at another time this year or next year. I want to be a part of the process to make that happen."
Smith said additional information about the shooting would have to come from the Helena-West Helena Police Department, which is still investigating it. No one from the department called back Monday.
The shooting and canceled parade were trending topics on social media.
"For weeks the community has been preparing for, marketing, and getting really excited about a community Christmas parade," Akaya Kitchen, who recently moved from Little Rock to Helena-West Helena, posted Saturday on Facebook. "Signs have been all over town and everybody has been talking about it!"
Kids in costume, floats ready to go, pictures being taken, wrote Kitchen.
Then, a couple of hours before the parade was to start, gunshots rang out, and the parade was canceled.
"People here have been conditioned to live with disappointments," wrote Kitchen.
Gloria McKing summed things up in a Facebook post on Saturday: "Lord Jesus protect our town!"