Walmart Chesapeake shooting: Manager opens fire in break room, killing six - Reuters

CHESAPEAKE, Va., Nov 23 (Reuters) - A manager astatine a Walmart Inc. (WMT.N) store successful Virginia entered a interruption country and opened occurrence connected chap employees earlier turning the weapon connected himself, an eyewitness said connected Wednesday, leaving a full of 7 dormant successful the latest wide shooting successful the United States.

Walmart worker Briana Tyler told ABC's Good Morning America that the suspect, who constabulary person not identified, said thing arsenic helium began firing connected the workers gathered up of their displacement precocious Tuesday.

"I looked up and my manager conscionable opened the doorway and helium conscionable opened fire," Tyler said. "He didn't accidental a word. He didn't accidental thing astatine all."

Using a pistol, the fishy besides injured astatine slightest 4 people, who were being treated astatine country hospitals, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky told a quality league connected Wednesday. He did not disclose a imaginable motive for the shooting, but said the fishy died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Coming connected the heels of the sidesplitting of 5 radical astatine a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub connected Saturday, the latest massacre prompted different circular of condemnations by nationalist officials and calls by activists for tighter weapon control.

U.S. President Joe Biden connected Wednesday called the shooting "yet different horrific and senseless enactment of violence," vowing immoderate national resources needed to assistance successful the investigation.

"There are present adjacent much tables crossed the state that volition person bare seats this Thanksgiving," helium said successful a statement, noting a shooting earlier this period that near 3 University of Virginia students dead. "We indispensable instrumentality greater action."

Employees told media that the shooter was a manager astatine the cavernous Walmart Supercenter conscionable disconnected Battlefield Boulevard successful Chesapeake, a metropolis of astir 250,000 radical southbound of Norfolk.

"The Battlefield Walmart conscionable got changeable up by 1 of my managers. He killed a mates of people. By the grace of God I made it out," different employee, Kevin Harper, told CBS.

Jessie Wilczewski told WAVY-TV that she hid nether a array and the shooter pointed the weapon astatine her and told her to spell home.

"It didn't adjacent look existent until you could consciousness the pow-pow-pow. You tin consciousness it," the store worker said. "I couldn't perceive it astatine archetypal due to the fact that I conjecture it was truthful loud. I could consciousness it."

Tuesday's bloodshed marked the latest spasm of weapon unit successful the United States, wherever an mean of 2 wide shootings -- defined arsenic an incidental sidesplitting oregon injuring 4 oregon much radical -- hap each day, according to GunViolenceArchive.org.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was already facing stepped-up calls for policies to code weapon unit successful the aftermath of the University of Virginia killings, ordered flags astatine local, authorities and national buildings to beryllium flown astatine half-staff.

"Heinous acts of unit person nary spot successful our communities," Youngkin wrote connected Twitter.

It is not the archetypal wide shooting astatine a Walmart, which has thousands of stores crossed the United States.

At a Walmart successful El Paso, Texas, successful August 2019, 23 radical were killed successful a wide shooting adjacent the U.S.-Mexico borderline successful an enactment described arsenic home coercion by instrumentality enforcement. It was besides the deadliest onslaught connected the Hispanic assemblage successful modern times. Patrick Wood Crusius, past 21, from Allen, Texas, was arrested successful the shooting and helium near down a manifesto with achromatic nationalist and anti-immigrant themes.

Walmart successful a connection connected Wednesday said it was "shocked" astatine the unit astatine the Chesapeake store and it was moving intimately with instrumentality enforcement.

Reporting by Rich McKay, Susan Heavey, Bharat Govind Gautam, Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Shubham Kalia; Additional reporting by Juby Babu; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones and Mark Porter

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