A Walmart store manager in Chesapeake, Va., opened fire inside the store on Tuesday night, killing six people and injuring at least six others in the outlet before turning the gun on himself. same, officials said Wednesday.
Officers were dispatched to an active threat situation at the Walmart Supercenter at 10:12 p.m. local time, Chesapeake police spokesman Leo Kosinski told reporters at the scene Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, Police Chief Mark Solesky said officers were on the scene within two minutes, entered the store two minutes later and within about an hour cleared the store and located all victims.
Two victims and the shooter were found dead in the rest room, city officials say said Wednesday afternoon. Another victim was found dead near the front of the store. Three died in area hospitals.
In a statement, Walmart identified the shooter as Andre Bing. His position was “night shift supervisor” and he started working for Walmart in 2010, the company said. City officials said the shooter was 31 years old and armed with a handgun and multiple magazines.
Solesky said the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police were not looking for anyone else in connection with the shooting.
Walmart employee Briana Tyler told The Associated Press the shooting happened in the store’s break room. Between 15 and 20 people from the night storage crew were in the room for a meeting when his manager opened fire, Tyler said.
“It was by the grace of God that a bullet missed me,” Tyler told the AP. “I saw the smoke coming out of the gun and I literally saw bodies falling. It was crazy.”
She told the news service that the shooting happened quickly and the shooter did not appear to be targeting specific people. City officials said in a statement that the shooter was dressed in civilian clothes and was not wearing any type of body armor.
“He was just shooting all over the room,” Tyler said. “It didn’t matter who he hit. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at anyone in a specific way.”
Two of the deceased victims have been identified by family members as Tyneka Johnson, 22, and Brian Pendleton, 39. The City of Chesapeake identified the other adult victims Wednesday night as Lorenzo Gamble, Kellie Pyle, Randall Blevins. The identity of the sixth victim, a 16-year-old boy, has not been released because he was a minor, the city said.
At least six other people were receiving treatment in hospitals, the city said. Two patients at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital were in critical condition, Dr Michael Hooper, the hospital’s chief medical officer, told reporters.
Johnson had only worked for Walmart for a few months and was saving up for her first car and first apartment, reports CBS News Justice and Homeland Security reporter Nicole Sganga. James Pendleton said in a statement that his brother Brian “had a big heart for anyone who needed help” and “would, quite literally, give the shirt off his back to someone who needed it more than he did.”
“The City of Chesapeake has always been known as the ‘city that cares,’ and now, more than ever, we know our city will step up and take care of those who need it most,” the city said in a statement. announcement Wednesday evening. “Please join us in praying for the family and friends of those community members we have lost.”
The FBI office in Norfolk, Va., confirmed that the agency was providing assistance to the Chesapeake Police Department, which was the lead agency in the investigation.
A man who said he was a customer described the scene in mobile phone videoreports CBS News Chief National Affairs and Justice Correspondent Jeff Pegues.
“We heard several gunshots inside…and all ran away,” Jeromy Basham said. “There was a person downstairs who is always up front.”
Another man said in a video that he was among the Walmart employees inside the store when the shooting started, reports Pegues.
“I literally walked out of the break room, didn’t I? And as soon as, probably about, no later than five minutes,” there was gunfire, Kevin Harper said.
Chesapeake Mayor Rick West released a statement early Wednesday morning saying he was “devastated by the senseless act of violence” and praising first responders.
West told CBS News that thinking about how to respond to mass shootings has become part of the job of municipal leaders across the country.
“The first feeling was nothing but fear because that was it, I knew what we would be dealing with and what these poor families are going to be dealing with for years to come,” West said.
Chesapeake is located in the Hampton Roads coastal region of southern Virginia, which includes the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Kosinksi said a “reunification site” had been established at the Chesapeake Conference Center, which, according to a city Twitter account, was “for immediate family members or emergency contact for those who may have could have been in the building”.
The incident was the second major mass shooting in the United States in recent days. Five persons were killed and 17 others injured when a suspect opened fire at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, early Sunday morning.
“Sickened by reports of another mass shooting, this time at a Walmart in Chesapeake,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. tweeted early Wednesday morning.
Virginia’s new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin also weighed in, saying“Our hearts break with the Chesapeake community this morning,” tweeted and added that “heinous acts of violence have no place in our communities.”
In its statement, Walmart said the company was “shocked by this tragic event” and “praying for those affected, the community and our associates.”
The retail giant said it was “working closely with law enforcement and we are focused on supporting our associates.”
Virginia State Senator Lillie Louise Lucas, a Democrat who represents the Chesapeake region that encompasses Chesapeake, said in a Tweeter that she was “heartbroken that the last American mass shooting took place at a Walmart in my district”.
“I will not rest until we find the solutions to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country that has claimed so many lives,” she said.
“Tragically, our community is suffering from another incident of senseless gun violence just as families gather for Thanksgiving,” said U.S. Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia.
According to data compiled by Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the United States this year, including at least 36 incidents with four or more deaths.
A criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston, Alan Fox, who has compiled data on shootings in the United States for decades, reported the same figure, which he said had made 2022 a record year for such attacks. even before the incident at the Chesapeake Walmart. .
“I’ve studied mass shootings for over 40 years and I’m absolutely convinced that there’s never been a year where we’ve had so many,” Fox said in an article published Monday by Northeastern, following the Colorado shootings. .
Fox noted “an unprecedented increase” since the beginning of October alone, during which time it said there were 13 fatal mass shootings.
“That’s an average of about two mass shootings a week,” Fox said.