Police spokesman gives update on Walmart shooting
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A 16-year-old has been identified as one of the victims of the Chesapeake Walmart store mass shooting.
Fernando Chavez Jr was fatally shot along with five others and at least four others were injured when gunman Andre Bing opened fire at the mall on Tuesday.
A gruesome “manifesto” has been found on the gunman’s cell phone, where he laid out his motive for the mass shooting in Virginia before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Witnesses have described how the horrific events unfolded in the employee’s break room, while investigators try to piece together a motive.
A law enforcement source told local media that Bing was “upset” about a recent change in employment status and complained of being “harassed” by fellow employees.
A former employee also said he was paranoid about the government watching him and didn’t like being recorded. One witness claims she saw him target certain people during the attack.
President Joe Biden said yesterday that the shooting, like the massacre at an LGBT + club in Colorado Springs over the weekend, underlined the need to ban “sick” assault weapons without social value.
Key Points
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Official release note found on gunman’s phone
A “death note” allegedly found on Andre Bing’s phone apologizes to God, saying “I failed you” and “this was not your fault, but mine.”
“I failed to listen to the groans of the holy spirit that made me misrepresent You,” the note reads.
“I was harassed by idiots with low intelligence and a lack of wisdom. I remained strong through most of the pain, but my dignity was completely removed without repair due to my phone being hacked,” it continues.
The note continues, accusing colleagues of laughing at him and comparing him to Jeffrey Dahmer.
“My true intention was never to kill anyone, believe it or not, I was actually one of the sweetest people in the world if you got to know me,” it continues. “I just wanted a woman who was as yoked as me and obsessed about the thought, however, I do not deserve a woman. I hope that people will learn from everyone’s mistakes and truly love God and not the material possessions of the world.
The note says that his “only wish would have been to start over and that my parents would have paid more attention to my social deficiencies.”
“Sorry everyone, but I didn’t plan this!” it continues.
It mentions that “things just fell into place as I was led by Satan.”
Alex Woodward25 November 2022 14:15
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Walmart employee stayed with shot colleagues so they wouldn’t die alone
A Walmart employee who survived the horror mass shooting at a Chesapeake store has revealed she stayed in the break room with her injured co-workers so they wouldn’t die alone.
Jessie Wilczewski told CNN she was in the store’s break room when overnight team leader Andre Bing walked in and opened fire on his co-workers.
At first she said it “didn’t register as real” and then her survival mode kicked in and she jumped under a table.
When the policeman left the room, she said she could see that some of her colleagues had been shot and were lying wounded or dead in the room.
Mrs. Wilczewski revealed that she stayed with the victims because she did not want them to be alone when they died.
“I could walk out the door … and I stayed. I stayed so that they were not alone in their last moments,” she said.
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 14:00
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Vigil held for 16-year-old victim
Hundreds of people gathered Thursday night for a vigil to pay tribute to the 16-year-old boy who was killed in the mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Fernando Chavez Jr, known to family and friends as Fernando Jesus Chavez, died Tuesday when gunman and Walmart night team leader Andre Bing opened fire on his co-workers.
The boy also worked at the store.
A crowd gathered at the store on Thursday to pay tribute to the “humble and intelligent” 16-year-old.
“Fernando was such a nice boy, he would say hi to everybody,” said Joshua Trejo, 17, a friend since high school.
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 13:40
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Walmart shooting suspect Andre Bing was ‘paranoid government saw him’
The suspect in the Walmart shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia, who opened fire in the store that left six employees dead, displayed paranoid behavior about the government watching him, an employee said.
Andre Bing, 31, the leader of the night team, allegedly opened fire on his colleagues in a break room before turning the gun on himself. The incident unfolded just after 10pm on Tuesday at the supermarket on Sam’s Circle.
Shaundrayia Reese, 27, a longtime colleague of Bing’s who worked with him from 2015 to 2018, said he kept his phone camera on tape and “didn’t do social media.”
She recalled that she was once filming a video of her colleagues and Bing “kind of jumped out of the way” to avoid being on camera.
Shweta Sharma of The Independent has the full story:
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 13:20
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Biden rails against ‘sick’ semi-automatic weapons and non-enforceable red flag laws on Thanksgiving in Nantucket
President Joe Biden condemned the proliferation of semi-automatic weapons and the fact that some areas of the country do not enforce the so-called “red flag laws” intended to prevent people who posed a danger to themselves and others.
Mr. Biden made the comments about Thanksgiving in Nantucket after delivering pumpkin pie to firefighters. The president’s comments came after a mass shooting in Colorado Springs killed five people at Club Q, a gay bar, and a shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, left six dead.
“The idea that we can still buy semi-automatic weapons is sick,” he told reporters. “Just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. No single reason for it, except profit for the gun manufacturers.
The president also criticized the fact that some areas of the country do not enforce red flag laws. In Colorado Springs, police arrested Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is accused of killing five people at Club Q, a year before the shooting.
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 13:00
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Why Can’t America End This Deadly Gun Violence?
How should you feel when someone walks into an LGBT+ nightclub in Colorado Springs and opens fire, killing five and injuring 20 others?
Horror, sure, and admiration for the individuals who confronted the alleged shooter before he destroyed even more lives.
The same is true when you wake up to the news that six people are dead at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, after a late-night employee opened fire, seriously injuring half a dozen others, before turning the gun on himself .
But in addition to the sympathy for the victims, there are two other emotions that bubble up and do not go away. And they are anger and shame, writes Andrew Buncombe.
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 12:40
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The Walmart shooter left a ‘manifesto’ on her phone
A law enforcement source told 10 On Your Side that, in the document, Bing, 31, described being “hurt” about a recent change in employment status and complained of being “harassed” by fellow employees.
Officials have not confirmed the existence of the manifesto and have yet to reveal the motive for Tuesday night’s massacre.
However, several of Bing’s co-workers at the store in Chesapeake, Virginia, have spoken out to reveal that he had had numerous “issues” with other staff members and had displayed threatening behavior in the run-up to the shooting.
Rachel Sharp has the story.
Josh Marcus25 November 2022 12:20
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Walmart gunman had ‘killlist’ of co-workers at Chesapeake store
Walmart gunman Andre Bing allegedly had a “kill list” of his co-workers at the Chesapeake, Virginia, store before Tuesday’s horror attack.
A printed list of employees’ names, their shift hours, their departments and their job duties was discovered in the trash outside his home on Thursday, according to Dailymail.com.
The list included some of the victims killed or injured in the pen attack, including 22-year-old Tyneka Johnson who died Tuesday night.
The other four murdered adult victims – Brian Pendleton, Randall Blevins, Lorenzo Gamble, and Kellie Pyle – were not on the list.
The list was reportedly handed over to authorities who have not commented on the find.
To date, it is unclear if the document revealed its intended goals or was simply a work list.
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 12:00
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Governor to Propose Mental Health Legislation
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in the wake of the mass shooting that his administration plans to propose legislation to the General Assembly to strengthen mental health resources.
Mr. Youngkin said the bill would provide more resources, address staffing challenges and recognize people undergoing a mental health crisis, according to KPVI.
“It is extremely important,” the governor said.
“We know we’ve been in a mental health crisis and there are some very immediate actions we need to take.”
Rachel Sharp25 November 2022 11:40 am
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Call for workplace reform after Walmart shooting
Workers too often don’t know how to recognize warning signs, and more crucially don’t know how to report suspicious behavior or feel empowered to do so, according to safety and human resources experts.
“We’ve built an industry on how to keep out bad guys. We’ve invested heavily in physical security measures like metal detectors, cameras and armed security guards,” said James Densley, professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University in DePaul, Minnesota and with -founder of the non-profit and nonpartisan research group The Violence Project.
More details in our full story.
Josh Marcus25 November 2022 11:20