CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A longtime Walmart manager opened fire on fellow employees in Chesapeake, Va., late Tuesday, killing six people as the store prepared to close for the night during a hectic holiday week. It was the third recent high-profile mass shooting in the United States, after three students were killed at the University of Virginia last week and five people were killed on Saturday night at a gay club in Colorado Springs.
Here are the details:
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The Walmart gunman used a pistol and was found dead at the store, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chief Mark Solesky of the Chesapeake Police Department said during a news conference early Wednesday. Two victims were in critical condition, according to hospital officials.
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Police identified the gunman as Andre Bing, 31, and said they were seeking a motive. Walmart said in a statement that he was an overnight manager who had worked for the company since 2010. Here’s what his co-workers said about him.
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Donya Prioleau, an employee on the overnight shift, said she saw the gunman come into the break room and, without a word, begin shooting. Read her account.
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Fifty people were in the store at the time of the attack, the police said. One shopper, Jeromy Basham, said he heard what sounded liked several loud claps, then people yelling, “It’s a gun, get out.” He described the ensuing chaos.
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Walmart’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, said his “heart hurts for our associates and the Chesapeake community.” The retailer has long been at the center of the gun-rights debate.
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Virginia — the site of one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings, the 2007 rampage at Virginia Tech that killed 32 — tightened its gun laws in recent years under Democratic leaders. But Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has suggested some of those changes should be rolled back.
