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Hampton Roads Community News

“IT DIDN’T MATTER WHO HE HIT!”

By Jaelyn Scott
Winter Intern
New Journal and Guide

On Tuesday, November 22, 31-year-old Andre Bings, a Walmart supervisor, shot and killed six people before turning the gun on himself at a Chesapeake Walmart.

The shooting took place right before a meeting at around 10:12 p.m. According to coworkers, Bings, who had worked at the store since 2010, walked in and started shooting at the 15 to 20 coworkers who were gathering for their overnight shift before he shot himself at the end of the rampage. Briana Tyler, an employee, said Bings did not appear to be aiming at anyone in particular . “He was just shooting all throughout the room. It didn’t matter who he hit. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at anybody in any specific type of way.”

The victims were identified as Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, Randall Blevins, 70, Tyneka Johnson, 22, and Fernando Chavez-Barron, whose name and picture were originally withheld due to his being a minor, only 16-years-old. They were honored over the Thanksgiving weekend with two public services: a prayer service on Sunday, November 27 at The Mount Church, and a candlelight vigil that took place on Monday, November 28 at the Chesapeake Park.

According to the police, at least six people were taken to the hospital for injuries. Police arrived on the scene two minutes later and helped evacuate the 50 people who were shopping in the store at the time, within an hour of its closing.

There were three deceased victims, including the shooter, who were located in the break room, while one deceased victim was located at the front of the store. The remaining three were taken to the hospital, but unfortunately succumbed to their injuries.

Currently a forensics analysis is being conducted on the shooter’s phone, where police found a note that was filled with complaints about co-workers and ramblings about his phone being hacked. The note was released on Monday after the shooting, with names of associates blanked out by the police. According to the death note, the gunman felt “harassed” and “mocked” by his co-workers. He referenced the Holy Spirit multiple times in the note, while also berating and complaining about his co-workers, claiming that they looked at him with “evil twisted grins” and “spoke in code words and laughed at him.” The note also described an encounter he had with a former co-worker, who, on her last day, had gone up to apologize to the gunman, and had “looked him in the eyes terrified by a demonic aura”

It was also stated in the note that his “true intent was never to murder anyone, believe it or not” and he even intended to spare one woman whom he had sympathy for due to his mother dying from cancer, and he ended the note saying, “My God forgive me for what I’m going to do…” He did free one of the co-workers before the rampage.

According to both former and current coworkers of the Walmart, they were described to have a tense relationship with the shooter, with one co-worker describing him as “always negative.” Tyler also noted that Bing, “just looked for little things to go about, because he had the authority.” A search warrant was also conducted on his home. where they found a box of ammunition and various items related to the 9mm handgun that he bought legally at a local store that morning.

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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who spoke during the Chesapeake City-sponsored vigil on monday night, has made a statement regarding the shooting, saying that the killings highlighted the need for mental health care, and pledged to work across party lines to enact it.

“We have a mental health and a behavioral health crisis in the United States and in Virginia, a crisis that shows up in all facets of our society, in our homes and our schools and our workplace, at times tragically manifesting itself in violence, murder, and in suicides.”

This is the latest mass shooting in the country since the Colorado Springs shooting at an LGBTQ+ Night Club that happened the weekend before The Walmart shooting. There, Anderson Lee Aldrich walked into Club Q and immediately opened fire, killing five people, and injuring 25 others.

The Walmart shooting also was the third mass shooting in the month of November, with a previous shooting taking place at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. On November 13, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.. a former football player and student, opened fire on a bus that was returning from a student field trip to Washington D.C., that left three football players dead and injured other students. The victims were D’Sean Perry from Florida, Lavel Davis Jr., from South Carolina, and Devin Chandler, a Virginia Beach resident.

Jones is in custody, charged with three counts of second-degree murder, as well as three counts of a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Photo by Wanda F. Camm

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