MULBERRY -- Outside the convenience store where three police officers and a suspect had a violent altercation two years ago, a bench sports a law firm's advertisement featuring as its largest word: "Injured?"
Whether the juxtaposition of the advertisement and the store occurs to people who stop at Kountry Xpress, 1107 Georgia Ridge Drive, could be considered a gauge of how well Mulberry has rebounded from the Aug. 21, 2022, incident.
A bystander's video of the officers holding down and beating the man, who was under arrest, went viral that day and thrust this tiny community of 1,590 residents unwillingly into the national and even global spotlight.
Six-year Mulberry resident Trish Mancino started working at Kountry Xpress in fall 2022 and was behind the counter Friday.
She was a Dollar General employee locally in August 2022.
"I was working right around the corner. Everybody knew what was going on," Mancino said. "It was devastating. It was tough for Mulberry."
Kountry Xpress sits beside Interstate 40 at the Dyer exit about five miles northwest of Mulberry. The primary interstate off ramp for the community is almost directly north of Mulberry's downtown.
There, in the heart of town, resident Sherry House-Jones, who owns and operates Blossom Shop, 210 N Main St., remembers well the feeling around town after the videotaped altercation.
"Everybody was abuzz," House-Jones recalled Friday. "I think overall, the people that I'm associated with -- they were very disappointed in the police officers .... all three of them."
IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN
Former Crawford County Sheriff's Office deputies Levi White and Zackary King, along with Mulberry Police Department Officer Thell Riddle, were the law enforcement personnel involved in the struggle with South Carolina resident Randal Worcester at Kountry Xpress just over two years ago.
As the trio of officers cooperated to subdue and arrest Worcester, he struggled on the concrete pavement outside the convenience store.
At one point, White punched Worcester several times in the head, then slammed his face into the concrete. King kneed the man repeatedly, while Riddle held Worcester's torso down.
That scene was filmed in an approximately 30-second video that bystanders took and then posted online. The video quickly went viral.
This week, after pleading guilty to federal civil rights violations related to the incident, White and King both were sentenced in a Fort Smith courtroom.
White must serve 63 months in a federal medical facility, followed by two years of supervised release. King received a 12-month sentence plus a year of supervised release.
Both were ordered to undergo mental health treatment as well.
Although he was suspended with pay after the incident, Riddle was never charged in relation with the altercation. He returned as an officer for Mulberry about six months afterwards.
'A BLACK EYE'
House-Jones graduated from Mulberry High School in the 1970s. She left for college with no plans to return.
"I decided that I would never ever come back," she said.
In 2020, after retiring from the Department of Veterans Affairs in Memphis, Tenn., she again made Mulberry her home to be near her elderly parents.
"They needed some help. They live here in town," House-Jones said.
She bought Blossom Shop in fall of 2021; it's served the Mulberry area since the 1970s, and she is the fifth owner.
Her shop sits across the street from Mulberry's City Hall and next to the community's public library.
"I knew that there was media coming to town, but I just stayed on my side of the street," House-Jones recalled of the atmosphere in Mulberry shortly after the violent arrest incident and viral video.
Following the sentencing hearings of White and King this week, no ripple effect seemed to pass through Mulberry.
"It's gone back to normal," she said of the community.
House-Jones still has questions about the fallout after the violent interaction between police and Worcester, who has suffered from mental illness most of his life, according to court testimony this week.
"I know that Mr. Riddle was not charged with anything. But ... why did he not break it up?" House-Jones said Friday. "But I'm sure he's a nice man."
Mancino said Riddle is a man of "great character" and a "great officer as far as I can see."
"In my experience he's a good guy," Mancino said. "He's well-respected in the community. I've seen him interacting with his family. I have nothing but good things to say about him."
Mancino also, however, has mixed emotions about the issues surrounding the disturbing video.
"I'm a firm believer in the civilian's rights, and I also have law enforcement in my family and amongst my friends," Mancino said. "I would never want that job in a million years. That's a tough job.
"I think that, from what I can see around the country, our law enforcement needs to be much more educated on the citizens' constitutional rights," she added.
Both Mancino and House-Jones expressed sorrow not only about the violent incident, but also about the fallout for a community that only by chance was involved.
"It was just sad that it happened," House-Jones said. "I just think that that whole incident is just a black eye to our city, and it's really sad."
Blossom Shop, 210 N Main St., owned by Sherry House-Jones, is across the street from Mulberry's city office building. (River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Penny Weaver)
At the Kountry Xpress convenience store, 1107 Georgia Ridge Drive, where the Aug. 21, 2022, violent confrontation between three police officers and one man who was under arrest occurred, sights in present day include a bench featuring a law firm's advertisement. The ad's largest text says, "INJURED?" (River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Penny Weaver)
Shadows of the Aug. 21, 2022, police beating of a suspect and the viral video that captured part of the incident are nowhere to be found on Main Street in Mulberry two years later. (River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Penny Weaver)
Kountry Xpress, located at 1107 Georgia Ridge Drive in Mulberry, offers travelers gasoline fill-ups, beverages and snacks, automotive-related items and more. Two years later, the fact that the convenience store was inadvertently the site of a violent 2022 incident between police and a suspect is unknown to most patrons. (River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Penny Weaver)