Walmart on Wednesday identified the store manager who police said opened fire at a store in Chesapeake, Virginia, killing six people and injuring at least six others.
The shooter, identified by the company as Andre Bing, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said. A handgun was recovered at the scene.
Solesky said the first 911 call came in at 10:12 p.m. local time on Tuesday and the first officers arrived two minutes later. There is no clear motive for the shooting, authorities said.
Walmart will “continue to cooperate with local law enforcement in their investigation,” said Robert Arrieta, a company spokesman.
The shooting came amid a wave of deadly gun violence in the U.S. and was the second major shooting in Virginia in just over a week. It was also the second high-profile mass shooting in the U.S. in less than a week, after Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, was attacked by a gunman.
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“The devastating news of last night’s shooting at our Chesapeake, VA store by one of our associates has hit our Walmart family hard. My heart aches for our associates and the Chesapeake community who have lost or injured loved ones. We are here for them today and they will have our support in the difficult days ahead,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillion wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
“We thank all of our employees, first responders and local officials who are already on the scene and supporting us as we work together to deal with this tragedy,” he added.
Who was the shooter in the Walmart shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia?
Walmart said Andre Bing, 31, is a “team leader” who has worked for the company since 2010. Bing was a night shift team leader, Richmond news station WTVR reported. A search of local and state court records found no previous criminal charges against Bing. USA TODAY also could not find any social media pages for him.
The city of Chesapeake said in a press release that investigators are working to learn more about Bing and his motive. The press release said the Chesapeake SWAT team “executed a search warrant on the suspect’s residence and, with the assistance of Virginia State Police, cleared the home.”
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Employee Briana Tyler, who started at Walmart two months ago, said she has never had a negative experience with Bing, but others have told her he is “the manager to watch out for.” She said Bing has a history of reprimanding people for no reason.
And Shaundrayia Reese, an employee who used to work at Bing, told the New York Times: “Everyone called him weird.”
The Times reported that other colleagues said Bing covered his cellphone camera because he feared he was being watched by the government.
What happened in the Walmart shooting in Virginia?
Tyler said the shooting occurred after the night replenishment team – about 15 to 20 people – gathered in the break room to go over the plan for the morning.
The meeting was just about to begin and a team leader remarked that we were in for a “quiet night.”
At that moment, Bing, another team leader, turned around and opened fire on the employees, Tyler said.
A press release from the city of Chesapeake on Wednesday said Bing was armed with “a pistol and multiple magazines.” He was “dressed in civilian clothes and was not wearing any armor or bulletproof vest.”
“It’s by God’s grace that a bullet missed me,” Tyler said. “I saw the smoke coming out of the gun and I literally saw bodies falling. It was crazy.”
At the time of the shooting, there were about 50 people in the store, according to the city’s press release.
Who were the victims?
Authorities released the names of those killed on Wednesday. Walmart said all of those killed were employees.
According to police, among the dead was a 16-year-old boy, whose name was not disclosed for reasons of age.
The other victims were identified as Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, and Randy Blevins, 70, all of Chesapeake, and Tyneka Johnson, 22, of nearby Portsmouth.
Contributors: Gina Barton, The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gunman in Walmart shooting in Virginia identified as manager Andre Bing
