Walmart employee killed 6 people in shooting at Virginia store
A Walmart employee opened fire at a Virginia store, killing six people, police said Wednesday, in the country’s second high-profile mass killing in days. The attacker also killed himself.
The Chesapeake store was busy with people stocking up ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday just before filming Tuesday night, a shopper told a local TV station.
There was no clear motive for the shooting, which also left four people hospitalized, Police Chief Mark G. Solesky said. The shooter’s home was searched, but Solesky didn’t give his name, saying only he was a Walmart employee because his family hadn’t been notified.
“I am devastated by the senseless act of violence that took place in our city late last night,” Mayor Rick W. West said in a statement posted to the city’s Twitter account on Wednesday. “Chesapeake is a close-knit community and we are all devastated by this news.”
Joetta Jeffery told CNN that she received text messages from her mother, who was at the store when the shots were fired. Her mother, Betsy Umphlett, was not injured.
“I’m crying, I’m shaking,” Jeffery said. “I was just talking to her about buying turkeys for Thanksgiving when this text came in.”
A database maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University that tracks every mass murder in America since 2006 shows that this year was particularly bad. There have been 40 mass murders in the US so far this year, second to the 45 for all of 2019. The database defines a mass murder as at least four people killed, not counting the killer.
The Walmart attack came three days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado, killing five and wounding 17. Earlier this year, the country was rocked by the deaths of 21 when a gunman stormed an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Tuesday’s shooting also brought back memories of another at a Walmart in 2019, when a gunman who police say was targeting Mexicans opened fire at a store in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people.
The shooting appeared to have stopped by the time police arrived at the Chesapeake store, Officer Leo Kosinski said. The city is Virginia’s second largest, adjacent to the coastal communities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Mike Kafka, a spokesman for Sentara Healthcare, said in a text message that five patients from the Walmart were being treated at Norfolk General Hospital. Your terms were not immediately available.
A man was seen at a hospital upon learning his brother was dead, and others screamed as they exited a conference center set up as a family reunion center, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Camille Buggs, a former Walmart employee, told the newspaper she went to the conference center to get information about her former colleagues.
“You keep saying you don’t think it would happen in your town, in your neighborhood, in your store — your favorite store, and that’s what shocks me,” said Buggs, 58, of Chesapeake.
Walmart tweeted early Wednesday that it was “shocked by this tragic event.”
US Senator Mark Warner said in a tweet that he was “disgusted by reports of another mass shooting, this time at a Chesapeake Walmart.”
State Senator Louise Lucas echoed Warner’s sentiments, tweeting that she was “absolutely heartbroken that America’s most recent mass shooting took place at a Walmart in my district.”
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