Walmart manager ‘just started shooting’ in break room

(Trends Wide) — The manager of a Virginia Walmart who killed six people and himself in a shooting Tuesday night has been identified as Andre Bing, 31, tweeted the city of Chesapeake.

“He was armed with a handgun and had multiple magazines on his person,” the city statement said.

Bing was a “team leader” on the night shift for Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, the source familiar with the matter told Trends Wide.

His coworkers said a quiet shift at the Walmart Supercenter turned into a night of horror, bloodshed and tragedy.

The deadly attack began around 10:12 p.m., less than an hour before Walmart Supercenter closed.

Employee Kevin Harper said he had just left the room when a colleague walked in and started shooting.

“He just had just come out of the break room … (the shooter) started trapping people in there,” Harper said in a Facebook Live video. The video is no longer on her Facebook page, but has been re-shared on social media.

“He just went in and started shooting,” Harper said. “I feel sorry for the victims.”

The motive for the attack remains a mystery.

Four people who were injured in the shooting remain hospitalized as of Wednesday morning, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said. At least two were in critical condition, said Dr. Michael Hooper, vice president and chief medical officer at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Investigators scoured the store overnight Wednesday looking for victims or people who may have been hiding, Chesapeake police spokesman Leo Kosinski said.

“Three people, including the shooter, were located dead in the store’s break room,” tweeted the city of Chesapeake. “A victim was located dead towards the front of the store. Three other victims were transported to local hospitals for further treatment, but succumbed to their injuries.”

The Thanksgiving week attack marks another mass shooting in a location traditionally seen as safe, from schools to hospitals to stores.

Just 170 miles (273 kilometers) west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville allegedly opened fire on his classmates earlier this month, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington. .

Last weekend, a 22-year-old shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, wounding 19 others, authorities said.

The United States has suffered more than 600 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Archive of Gun Violence. Both the nonprofit organization and Trends Wide define mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot, not including the assailant.

“Is [tragedia] It’s especially painful”

Joetta Jeffery said her mother, Betsy Umphlett, sent her text messages from inside the store saying bullets were flying through the air.

“I’m crying, I’m shaking,” Jeffery told Trends Wide. “I had just talked to her about buying turkeys for Thanksgiving, then this text came through.”

Police on Wednesday continued to process the scene of a Tuesday night mass shooting that killed six people at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Jeffery said his mother is not injured, but rather traumatized by the tragedy.

A reunification center has been set up at the Chesapeake Conference Center for families seeking details about their loved ones who were in the store. City officials have asked that only family members or emergency contacts of people inside visit the center.

John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart US, said the mass shooting in Chesapeake was uniquely tragic because the shooter was an employee.

“We feel tragedies like this personally and deeply. But this one is especially painful because we learned that the attacker was a Walmart associate,” Furner said in a statement. “The entire Walmart family is heartbroken. Our hearts and prayers go out to those affected, and we are grateful for the actions of first responders.”

The FBI’s Norfolk Division said the agency is assisting the Chesapeake Police Department in the investigation.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Amanda Jackson, David Williams, Michelle Watson, Chris Boyette, Holmes Lybrand, Dave Alsup, Joe Sutton, Braden Walker, Lauren Koenig, Brian Todd, Andy Rose de Trends Wide contribuyeron a este reporte.