Center the victims in a shooting’s aftermath
I consider Chesapeake to be my home. I moved here at 14 years old with my parents and younger brother. The teachers, staff and students of Chesapeake Public Schools, specifically Greenbrier Middle School and Oscar Smith High School, welcomed me with open arms. When people ask me what my hometown is — despite having lived in Puerto Rico and Norfolk for most of my life — I consistently answer Chesapeake.
In November, Andre Bing, a manager at a Chesapeake Walmart, shot and killed six fellow co-workers. According to employee reports of the shooting, Bing was demonstrating angry and negative behaviors: “Co-workers had submitted complaints to Walmart about [his] behavior, saying he verbally harassed them, according to a lawsuit filed by employee Donya Prioleau.”
For many residents of Chesapeake, the Sam’s Circle Walmart where the shooting occurred is a place that they frequent. My own mother does our weekly grocery shopping at that location.
As soon as the news broke out about the shooting, people not only in Chesapeake, but around the entire nation voiced their condolences. It was not just local media that reported on the tragedy, but national publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian and more.
However, I found myself incredibly disconcerted by the way the shooting was discussed by my former high school classmates. Responses to the shooting on my Instagram feed seemed to center around the potential danger that people not involved in the tragedy faced. Many wrote, “I was just at that Walmart,” “I live a mile from there,” and “It could have been any of us.” Although I understand that a mass shooting occurring in your community can have psychological effects on those who were not directly impacted, these responses to the shooting felt deeply tonedeaf.
The real victims did not have the luxury of saying they were almost hurt. Six people lost their lives: Lorenzo Gamble,
Brian Pendleton, Kellie Pyle, Randall Blevins, Tyneka Johnson and Fernando Chavez-Barron. Chavez-Barron was only 16 years old and a student at Oscar Smith High School. I cannot imagine the pain that the employees of that Walmart and the friends and family of the victims must be feeling. Furthermore, I cannot imagine how it must feel for these victims to constantly read tonedeaf posts from people saying they were almost at the shooting.
When reading people’s responses to the shooting, my mind kept wandering back to Susan Sontag’s “Regarding The Pain of Others.” Sontag, an American writer and philosopher who is best known for “Notes on Camp,” writes about how people react to war and other violent conflicts, especially through photography. According to Sontag, photography is an act of non-intervention; we detach ourselves from violence when viewing gruesome photography. The act of sharing footage from the shooting detaches us from the actual tragedy that occurred.
I do not mean for this to be a criticism of the people who responded to the shooting in this way. My first reaction to the shooting was essentially indistinguishable from theirs. However, I shortly realized how insensitive this response was after reading stories about the victims.
My motive is to encourage people to rethink the rhetoric they use when discussing shootings, especially those that occurred in their communities. When speaking about shootings, our discussions must center direct action in response to the shooting and support for the victims and their families
Our detached fear of our proximity to a gruesome event does not justify our self-victimization. The real victims were the employees, those who were injured or killed and their friends and family.
They were not the ones who were “almost” there.