On the eve of the big family holiday of Thanksgiving, a manager of a Walmart supermarket in the eastern United States shot dead six people on Tuesday evening before committing suicide at the scene, police said on Wednesday. The shooter, identified as Andre Bing, 31, was armed with a pistol and had several magazines in his possession, said the municipality of Chesapeake in Virginia, where the facts took place. He held the position “of night shift leader and he had worked with us since 2010,” said retail giant Walmart in a statement.
The police searched the suspect’s home on Wednesday in order to identify the motive for the killing, which is still not known. “I looked up and my manager opened the door (to the supermarket employee rest room, editor’s note) and just started shooting,” Briana Tyler told ABC. “He said nothing, said nothing at all,” she added.
16-year-old boy among victims
The police received a first emergency call at 10:12 p.m. Tuesday evening and the first police officers entered the Walmart store in this city located 240 km south of the capital Washington four minutes later, detailed Mark Solesky , Chesapeake Police Chief. About 50 customers were in the store when the shooting broke out, according to a Chesapeake police statement. “We are shocked by this tragic event,” Walmart tweeted Wednesday.
Authorities said the shooter killed two people in the break room and committed suicide there. Another victim was discovered “towards the front of the store” and three others “were transported to nearby hospitals but succumbed to their injuries”. The youngest of the victims mowed down by the bullets was 16, authorities said. Four people were hospitalized on Wednesday, police said in the morning.
Third killing in a few days
In front of the store, where about fifteen investigators were active on Wednesday, including some federal police officers, now stands an improvised memorial of flowers and candles in honor of the victims. President Joe Biden lamented a “horrific and senseless act of violence” on the eve of Thanksgiving, “one of the holidays we cherish most and which brings us together as Americans and as families.” “Even more tables across the country will have chairs left empty this Thanksgiving,” he said in a statement.
This drama is the latest in a series of killings in the United States: four days earlier, a shooting in Colorado Springs in the west of the country left five dead and at least 18 injured in an LGBT + club. And the previous week, already in Virginia, three members of the University of Virginia football team had been killed by a former teammate.