A manager was said to be laughing as he opened fire inside a Virginia Walmart on Tuesday night, killing at least six people before turning the gun on himself just days before thanksgiving.
The accused gunman, Andre Bing, who was the store manager at the Walmart on Sam’s Circle in Chesapeake, according to FOX 3 Now, was also reportedly killed during the fatal incident.
Police Chief Confirms Shooter Was Current Employee Who Took His Own Life Using Pistol, Suspect ID’d
At a press conference Wednesday morning, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky confirmed that the attacker was a current employee who took his own life using a pistol.
“There is no clear motive at this time,” Solesky told reporters, adding that there was no indication that the gunman was known to law enforcement prior to the shooting.
The chief said he could not identify the gunman until next of kin have been notified, however Bing’s identity became public later Wednesday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5k8_lRk278
One of the workers – who was only on the job for five days – witnessed the mass shooting and told the outlet that she heard the shooter laughing during the deadly attack.
The woman went on to say that there were 14 employees in a meeting room waiting to be given their assignments for the day when the gunfire began.
Manager “Had Issues” With Others At The Walmart In Question, Worker Believes Shooting Was Planned
She claimed Bing “had issues” with other managers at the store, and said she believed the shooting was premeditated.
“It didn’t even look real until you could feel the gun go off,” the witness told FOX 3. “I will never go back in that store again. I cannot, I can’t even leave my front door.”
Police have since searched the home of Bing, who was reportedly already dead when officers entered the Walmart around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday night after reports of a shooting inside the store, where they found multiple people dead and injured.
As of Wednesday morning, four shooting victims were being treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, however their conditions were unknown according to Solesky.
Well here’s the Walmart shooter so won’t be in the main stream media long meet Andre bing walmart employee pic.twitter.com/DzLLhAXwuq
— jiffy peanut (@PeanutJiffy) November 23, 2022
The city confirmed in a tweet at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday that there had been seven fatalities, including a janitor, a female co-worker and the manager himself. A teenage worker was allegedly one of the victims who died, per reports.
Shooting Began In Break Room, Janitor, Female Co-Worker, Teenage Employee Among Victims
Another employee, identified as Kevin Harper, described the horrifying attack on Facebook Live, which only ended after the man reported to be Bing turned the gun on himself.
“He blew his brains out and everything. He killed the girl in there and everything. He came in and started spraying. I’m sorry for the victims,” said the employee in a Walmart uniform, claiming the shooter was a manager.
Harper went on to say that he had “just left the break room … the manager come in there and started capping people up in there, started shooting. Sadly, we lost a few of our associates.”
A third worker, Briana Tyler, said that staff had gathered in the break room as they normally do before their shifts start, when her “manager just opened the door and … opening fire.”
https://twitter.com/GirbaudTx/status/1595308162189516802
“I looked up, and my manager just opened the door and he just opened fire,” she told ABC’s “Good Morning America,” adding that “multiple people” dropped to the floor.
“He didn’t say a word, he didn’t say anything at all,” Tyler said.
No Victims Have Been Publicly Identified As Of Yet, Shooting Comes Days After Shooting At Colorado Gay Nightclub
It took police nearly an hour to declare the scene safe, FOX 3 reports.
Meanwhile, none of the victims have been publicly named as of Wednesday afternoon pending family notification, officials said.
The shooting comes three days after Anderson Lee Aldrich reportedly opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding more before being tackled by heroic patrons, The Shade Room previously reported.
It also comes three years after a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, where a gunman who police said was targeting Mexicans killed 22 people, as reported by The Shade Room at the time.
