By Teddy Fred
A Walmart gunman killed up to 10 people at a Walmart supermarket in Chesapeake, Virginia, police say.
A man, believed to be the store manager, opened fire and then turned the gun on himself, and is now dead.
The City of Chesapeake tweeted “Police confirm active shooting incident with fatalities at Walmart.”
There are few details, but a police officer spoke of no more than 10 dead and several injured. No motive has emerged. Police told reporters the attack occurred at 10:12 pm local time (03:12 GMT).
Spokesman Leo Kosinski said the shooting allegedly took place inside the store and that the suspect acted alone.
Walmart said it was “shocked by this tragic event” and was “working closely with law enforcement.”
An additional update from the Chesapeake Police Department is expected Wednesday morning.
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Photos on social media showed a heavy police presence at the scene, and footage appeared online that appeared to show an eyewitness – in a Walmart uniform – describing what happened. He said he walked out of a staff room, which a manager then entered and opened fire.
“Unfortunately, we lost some of our employees,” the man said, adding that he did not know how many of his colleagues had been shot.
A spokesperson for Sentara Norfolk General Hospital was quoted as saying five people were being treated there.
A woman said that her brother, a 20-year-old store worker, was shot and killed just 10 minutes after reporting for work.
But she said her siblings are able to talk to loved ones and text – saying it’s “reassuring”. Another woman named Joetta Jeffery said that her mother was in the building when the attack happened and had managed to send text messages.
Mark Warner, a Democratic senator for the state of Virginia, tweeted that he was “disgusted by reports of yet another mass shooting.”
Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas, also a Democrat, added that she was “absolutely heartbroken.” She wrote on Twitter: “I will not rest until we find solutions to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country.”
Tuesday night’s attack came just days after a gunman opened fire on an LGBT nightclub in the state of Colorado, killing five people and injuring 17 others.
In 2019, a mass shooting at a Walmart in the city of El Paso, Texas, killed 23 people.
