Page 4 - aruba-today-20221124

A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 24 November 2022
Walmart manager opens fire in break room, killing 6

By ALEX BRANDON talking Wednesday, after
and BEN FINLEY initially being placed on a
Associated Press ventilator.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — A Shupe said she learned of
Walmart manager opened the shooting from a friend,
fire on fellow employees in who went to a family reuni-
the break room of a Virgin- fication center to find out
ia store, killing six people in Jones’ whereabouts.
the country’s second high- “If he’s not answering his
profile mass shooting in four phone, he’s not answering
days, police and witnesses text messages and there’s
said Wednesday. a shooting at his job, you
The gunman, who ap- just kind of put two and two
parently shot himself, was together,” Shupe said. “It
dead when officers found was shock at first, but ulti-
him, police said. There was mately, I just kept thinking,
no clear motive for the he’s going to be all right.”
shooting, which also left at Walmart said in a state-
least six people wounded, ment that it was working
including one critically. with law enforcement and
The store in Chesapeake, “focused on doing every-
Virginia’s second-largest thing we can to support
city, was busy just before our associates and their
the attack Tuesday night as families.”
people stocked up ahead In the aftermath of the El
of the Thanksgiving holiday, A law enforcement investigator wears a protective covering as they work the scene of a mass Paso shooting, the com-
a shopper told a local TV shooting at a Walmart, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, in Chesapeake, Va. Associated Press pany made a decision in
station. September 2019 to discon-
Employee Briana Tyler said he did not aim at anyone Bing looked and pointed people killed, not including tinue sales of certain kinds
the overnight stocking specific. “He was just shoot- his gun at her. He told her the killer. of ammunition and asked
team of 15 to 20 people ing all throughout the room. to go home, and she left. The database defines a that customers no longer
had just gathered in the It didn’t matter who he hit. The attack was the second mass killing as at least four openly carry firearms in its
break room to go over He didn’t say anything. He time in a little more than a people killed, not including stores. It stopped selling
the morning plan. She said didn’t look at anybody in week that Virginia has ex- the killer. handgun ammunition as
the meeting was about to any specific type of way.” perienced a major shoot- According to the data- well as short-barrel rifle am-
start, and a team leader Tyler, who started at ing. Three University of Vir- base, more than a quarter munition, such as the .223
said: “All right guys, we Walmart two months ago, ginia football players were of the mass killings have oc- caliber and 5.56 caliber
have a light night ahead said she never had a nega- fatally shot on a charter bus curred since Oct. 21, span- used in military style weap-
of us,” when another team tive encounter with Bing, as they returned to campus ning eight states and claim- ons. Walmart also discon-
leader, 31-year-old Andre but others told her that he from a field trip on Nov. 13. ing 51 lives. Nine of those 11 tinued handgun sales in
Bing, turned around and was “the manager to look Two other students were incidents were shootings. Alaska.
opened fire on the staff. out for.” She said Bing had wounded. Notably, the database The company stopped sell-
“It is by the grace of God a history of writing people The assault at the Walmart does not include the re- ing handguns in the mid-
that a bullet missed me,” up for no reason. came three days after a cent shooting at the Uni- 1990s in every state but
Tyler said. “I saw the smoke “He just liked to pick, hon- person opened fire at a versity of Virginia because Alaska. The latest move
leaving the gun, and I liter- estly. I think he just looked gay nightclub in Colora- that attack did not meet marked its complete exit
ally watched bodies drop. for little things to go about, do, killing five people and the threshold of four dead, from that business and al-
It was crazy.” because he had the au- wounding 17. Last spring, not including the shooter. lowed it to focus on hunting
Officials said on the city’s thority. That’s just the type the country was shaken President Joe Biden tweet- rifles and related ammuni-
Twitter account that three of person that he was. by the deaths of 21 when ed that he and the first lady tion only.
of the dead, including Bing, That’s what a lot of people a gunman stormed an el- were grieving for the vic- Many of its stores are in
were found in the break said about him,” she said. ementary school in Uval- tims’ families. rural areas where hunters
room. One of the slain vic- A neighbor, Alicia McDuff- de, Texas.Tuesday night’s “We mourn for those who depend on Walmart to get
tims was found near the ie, said police “swarmed shooting also brought back will have empty seats at their equipment.
front of the store. Three oth- the whole street” in the memories of another at their Thanksgiving table Tyler’s grandfather, Richard
ers were taken to hospitals middle of the night and a Walmart in 2019, when because of these tragic Tate, said he dropped his
where they died of their forced their way into Bing’s a gunman who targeted events – we must take granddaughter off for her
wounds. house. Her mother, Vera Mexicans opened fire at a greater action.” 10 p.m. shift, then parked
Walmart said in a state- McDuffie, saw officers ap- store in El Paso, Texas, and A 911 call about the shoot- the car and went in to buy
ment that Bing was an proach Bing’s front door killed 22 people. ing came in just after 10 some dish soap.
overnight team leader and with a battering ram. A database run by The As- p.m. Solesky did not know When he first heard the
had been with the compa- Chesapeake Police Chief sociated Press, USA Today how many shoppers were shots, he thought it could
ny since 2010. Mark G. Solesky said Bing and Northeastern University inside, whether the gun- be balloons popping.
At first, Tyler didn’t think used a pistol, and police that tracks every mass kill- man was working or wheth- But he soon saw other cus-
the shooting was real. “It said later that he had mul- ing in America going back er a security guard was tomers and employees
was all happening so fast. tiple magazines. Solesky to 2006 shows that the U.S. present. fleeing, and he ran too.
I thought it was like a test could not confirm whether has now had 40 mass kill- Kimberly Shupe, mother of Tate reached his car and
type of thing. Like, if you do the victims were all employ- ings so far in 2022. That Walmart employee Jalon called his granddaughter.
have an active shooter, this ees. Employee Jessie Wil- compares with 45 for all of Jones, told reporters her “I could tell that she was
is how you respond.” czewski told Norfolk televi- 2019, the highest year in the 24-year-old son was shot upset,” he said. “But I
Tyler, who worked with Bing sion station WAVY that she database, which defines a in the back. She said he could also tell that she was
just the night before, said hid under the table, and mass killing as at least four was in good condition and alive.”q