(Trends Wide) — Authorities in Chesapeake, Virginia, have released details of a note found on the phone of the Walmart shooter, responsible for the deaths of six employees before taking his own life on Tuesday night.
In a series of tweets Posted Friday, the city of Chesapeake shared a screenshot of a note called a “death note,” which outlined grievances shooter Andre Bing had with himself and his colleagues, some of whom went by specific names.
The note talks at length about God, the Holy Spirit and how the attacker felt that his colleagues were laughing and making fun of him.
“The employees laughed at me meanly, jeered and celebrated my downfall on the last day. That is why they run the same luck as me, ”says the note.
“I wish I could have saved everyone from myself,” the note reads. “My God, forgive me for what I’m going to do…”.
Authorities also reported that Bing used a 9mm pistol that was purchased on the morning of Tuesday, November 22, the same day as the shooting.
Bing had no criminal record, the city said.
As authorities investigate this week’s mass shooting inside the Walmart, at least two employees remained hospitalized in critical condition.
Lashana Hicks (left) joins other mourners at a memorial Wednesday for those killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart Supercenter in Chesapeake, Virginia. Credit: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
The shooting Tuesday night, two days before Thanksgiving, began minutes after 10 p.m. inside the employee break room, where some workers were preparing to start their night shift.
The people killed are Randy Blevins, 70; Lawrence Gamble, 43; Tyneka Johnson, 22; Brian Pendleton, 38; Kellie Pyle, 52, and a 16-year-old minor, whose name is withheld because he is a minor, according to authorities.
As police work to determine the motive for one of at least three mass shootings in Virginia this month, Chesapeake officials have announced a vigil for the victims, scheduled for Monday night in City Park.
“Chesapeake is a tight-knit community and we are all shocked,” Mayor Rick West said in a message posted online earlier this week. “Together we will support each other during this time.”
The tragedy, which occurred as many members of the community prepared to spend the holidays with family and friends, has unleashed an outburst of grief and trauma over the loss of loved ones in yet another US mass shooting.
Another Virginia community has also been enduring the pain of lives lost to gun violence. About 170 miles west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was arrested and charged after opening fire on his classmates on November 13, killing three of them on a bus that was traveling He was returning to campus from a field trip to Washington.
Grief also permeated a Colorado community last weekend when a 22-year-old suspect shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, wounding 19 others, authorities said.
These shootings, among many others, have put the US on the ominous path of making 2022 the year with the second most recorded mass shootings, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, which began tracking the number of shootings. cases in 2014.
Flowers and balloons were placed at the Virginia Walmart after the massacre on November 22, 2022. (Credit: Alex Brandon / AP)
Survivors describe the shooting
The shooting in Chesapeake this week broke out suddenly, and witnesses said they were shocked and in disbelief when they saw the gunman pointing a firearm at them.
Walmart employee Kevin Harper said the gunman entered the break room and immediately began shooting.
“He went in there and started spraying,” Harper said in a video on social media.
The attacker has been identified as Andre Bing, who was working as a “team leader” overnight. The 31-year-old man had been working for Walmart since 2010, the company said. Authorities have said he had a semiautomatic pistol and several magazines of ammunition.
Two dead victims and the shooter were found in the break room, another victim was found in the front of the store and three others died at the hospital, Chesapeake city officials said.
Jessie Wilczewski, who was recently hired, told Trends Wide she was in a regularly scheduled meeting when the shooting began.
At first, “it didn’t register as real,” he said, until the sound of gunshots echoed in his chest.
Wilczewski hid under a table as the attacker walked down a nearby hallway. He could see some of his coworkers on the floor or lying on chairs, all motionless and some probably dead, he said. He stayed because he didn’t want to leave them alone.
“I could have run out that door … and I stayed. I stayed so they wouldn’t be alone in their last moments,” Wilczewski said in a message to the families of two victims.
When the shooter returned to the break room, Wilczewski said, he told him to get out from under the table and go home.
“I had to knock on the door that was covered [de sangre]”I just remember grabbing my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back, well, he’s going to have to try really hard because I’m running,’ and I did … and I didn’t stop until I got to my car. And then I had a breakdown.”
Briana Tyler, also a newly hired employee, said she saw bullets flying just inches from her face.
“All of a sudden you hear ‘da da da da da da da da’,” Tyler said. “There were people throwing themselves on the ground,” she said. “Everybody was screaming, gasping, and yeah, he just walked away after that and continued all over the store and kept shooting.”
Trends Wide’s Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.
