US: Author of Virginia Walmart shooting was an employee and killed himself after attack

Authorhe shoots at a Walmart supermarket in USA happened last night, in which six people were killed, was a store worker who apparently committed suicide later, police confirmed this Wednesday at a press conference.

As explained by Mark Soleski, Chief of Police Chesapeakethe city in Virginia where the event took place, when agents arrived at the supermarket, minutes after the first 911 call, they found the shooter already dead from a gunshot they believe was self-inflicted.

Solesky confirmed the information about six dead – seven together with the author – and four injured, who were hospitalized in local hospitals.

The police chief explained that the perpetrator of the shooting fired a pistol, and did not provide further details about him, except that he is a man and an employee of the network. walmartbut could not confirm if he was a supervisor or employed at the time.

However, there are witnesses who already confirm this detail. Briana Tyler, a store employee, told ABC that her supervisor entered the employee break room and opened fire on them.

“He didn’t say a word, he didn’t say anything, he just showed up and started shooting,” said the witness, who claimed that the shooter was not aiming at anyone in particular, but was shooting at the first person that caught his eye.

“He was a warden that, you know, everyone had something to say about,” this witness said of the shooter, who in any case indicated that “nothing” indicated that he could end up committing a crime of this kind.

Police were alerted to the events at 22:12 local time on Tuesday (03:12 GMT on Wednesday), when the supermarket walmart it was still open.

Forty emergency vehicles drove to the site, where a huge police operation was also deployed, which remains in the store until the morning.

The police chief insisted at a press conference that all evidence must be processed and witnesses interviewed before he could provide more details.

“Senseless Violence”

“Heinous acts of violence have no place in our communities,” Governor said VirginiaRepublican Glenn Youngkin, who ordered the US and Virginia flags to be flown at half-mast in memory of the victims and their families.

walmartthe largest retailer in the United States, issued a statement early Wednesday morning saying it was “shocked by this tragic event” and “working closely” with police.

Gun attacks on supermarkets in the United States have become more frequent in recent years.

In May, a teenager killed 10 people, mostly blacks, at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Last year, a shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado also killed 10 people. And in 2019, a young man killed 23 people and injured 26 people in a local car accident. walmart in El Paso, Texas.

From January 1, 2020 to May 14 this year, there were 448 “gun incidents” and 137 deaths at 12 major national retail stores, according to the NGO Guns Down America.

In the Chesapeake, local resident Edna Dunham told CBS News after the shooting, “That could have been me.”

“It could have been any of us because we go there often. It could have been any of us,” he said.

“Unfortunately, our community is experiencing yet another case of senseless gun violence just as families are gathering for Thanksgiving,” tweeted Bobby Scott, a Democrat who is a U.S. Congressman from Virginia.

State Senator from Virginia Louise Lucas, representing the Chesapeake region, vowed on Twitter that she would not rest until solutions were found “to end this widespread gun violence that has claimed so many lives” in the country.

Gun violence is occurring at an alarming rate in the United States, where there were more than 600 shootings in 2022, according to the Archive of Gun Violence.