US sees 2nd high-profile shooting in four days
VIRGINIA WALMART
EMPLOYEE OPENS FIRE
WASHINGTON: A Walmart employee killed six people and wounded several others before fatally shooting himself at a store in Chesapeake, Virginia, authorities said on Wednesday, the country’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days.
The shooter, who has not been identified, used a pistol in the shooting late on Tuesday, wounding at least four people in addition to the fatalities, Chesapeake police chief Mark Solesky said at a news conference.
Coming on the heels of the killing of five people at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub on Saturday, the latest massacre prompted another round of condemnations by public officials and calls by activists for tighter gun control.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called the shooting “yet another horrific and senseless act of violence,” vowing any federal resources needed to aid in the investigation.
“There are now even more tables across the country that will have empty seats this Thanksgiving,” he said in a statement, noting a shooting earlier this month that left three University of Virginia students dead. “We must take greater action.”
In addition to seven confirmed dead, including the shooter, four people were being treated at area hospitals, Solesky said. Employees told media that the shooter was a manager at the cavernous Walmart Supercenter just off Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake, a city of about 250,000 people south of Norfolk.
“I looked up and my manager just opened the door and he just opened fire,” Briana Tyler said, according to ABC News.
The attack at the Walmart came three days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado, killing five people and wounding 17. Earlier in the year, the country was shaken by the deaths of 21 when a gunman stormed an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.