Suspected Assailant In Chesapeake Walmart Shooting Worked At The Store, Police Say

Topline

The suspected gunman who killed six people and injured at least four before killing himself in a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, late Tuesday night was an employee at the store, according to police, while employees say the assailant was a store manager.

Key Facts

The gunman, whose name has not yet been made public, was a current employee at the store, Chesapeake police chief Mark Solesky said in a press conference Wednesday morning.

According to one Walmart employee named Briana Tyler, who witnessed the attack, the shooter was the store’s manager.

Tyler told ABC’s Good Morning America the gunman carried out the attack on a group of employees who arrived for a night shift, adding “he wasn’t aiming at anybody specifically” and that he “just started shooting.”

In a Facebook post, another woman who said she worked with the suspected gunman at Walmart, said he carried out the attack in the store’s breakroom.

One shopper who had been at the Walmart that night told local ABC outlet WVEC the store was “extremely crowded” with shoppers immediately before the attack took place, and just two days ahead of Thanksgiving.

An investigation into the attack could take days, Solesky said in a press conference.

President Joe Biden issued a written statement Wednesday morning, condemning the attack and saying, “because of yet another horrific and senseless act of violence, there are now even more tables across the country that will have empty seats this Thanksgiving.”

Key Background

Local police officers responded to the Walmart around 10:12 p.m. Thursday night, finding the shooter dead when they arrived on the scene. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he was “sickened by reports of yet another mass shooting” in a Twitter post, while Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) condemned the attack, saying, “heinous acts of violence have no place in our communities.” Walmart also issued a statement, saying, “We are shocked at this tragic event,” adding the company is working with law enforcement.

Tangent

The attack on Tuesday night was the latest in a string of recent mass shootings, and the second major shooting this week, following the attack at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday that left five people dead and more than two dozen injured. The shootings come six months after a gunman in Buffalo, New York, killed 10 at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and after a shooter killed 21 people, including 19 children, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Those high-profile shootings resparked a national conversation around gun violence and reform. In June, Congress passed a gun control bill that strengthens background checks for gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21 and funds a federal program to help states invest in so-called red-flag laws, which permit courts to seize guns from people determined to be dangerous.

Further Reading

6 Killed At A Walmart Mass Shooting In Chesapeake, Virginia (Forbes)

The gunman who killed 6 people at a Walmart in Virginia was an employee, police say (CNN)

Gunman who killed 6 at Virginia Walmart was store employee, police say (Washington Post)