Andre Bing, Chesapeake, Walmart manager had long running issues with other managers and workers at the store in what some now believe was a planned attack. Shooting leaves seven dead, including gunman who took his own life.
The Walmart gunman who opened fire in the break room of the Chesapeake store where he worked last night, killing six people before committing suicide, ‘always had a problem with staff’ and had worked at the store for 12 years.
Andre Marcus Bing, a 31-year-old team leader, opened fire in the break-room of the Walmart in Sam’s Circuit, Chesapeake, at 10.12pm Tuesday night, where 14 employees had gathered for a pre-shift meeting.
By 10.16pm, when the first cops entered the store, the gunman had killed himself and two others.
A third victim was dead at the front of the store, near the entrance.
Three others who were taken to the hospital died of their injuries. Four others remain in the hospital today. Among those killed is 22-year-old Tyneka Johnson, who was named by her family on Wednesday.
Chesapeake Walmart shooter left death note: bought gun day of slaying
Chesapeake Walmart manager had death list in planned attack
Walmart Shooter Andre Bing,having fun before shooting up his job‼️😮🙏🏾 #Chesapeake #chesapeakewalmart #massshooting #chesapeakeva pic.twitter.com/rZcT0DTSm7
— EyeQShahid (@Stackeyeq) November 23, 2022
12 year veteran store employee
Andre had no social media accounts, and police are yet to release a photo of him. He does not appear to have had a criminal record.
A previous video of the night manager showed Bing ‘joking’ around with fellow co-workers. The video said to be from 2016, betrayed no signs of animosity or hostility to fellow workers.
While social media had identified the gunman as Andre Bird just hours after the mass shooting, it wasn’t until Wednesday morning that the man’s employer confirmed the gunman’s identity.
Told a Walmart spokesperson via the dailymail: ‘The alleged shooter has been identified as Andre Bing. We can confirm that he was a Walmart associate. Andre’s position with the company was overnight team lead and he’s been employed with us since 2010.’
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a LinkedIn statement of his own: ‘The devastating news of last night’s shooting at our Chesapeake, VA store at the hands of one of our associates has hit our Walmart family hard. My heart hurts for our associates and the Chesapeake community who have lost or injured loved ones. We are here for them today and in the challenging days ahead they will have our support.
‘We appreciate all of our associates, first responders, and local officials who are already on site helping offer support as we work together to navigate this tragedy.’
Survivors on Wednesday shared macabre details of how the gunman was known to be problematic among staff.
An employee from the Chesapeake, VA Walmart where the latest shooting occurred shares his experience.
He says the Manager was the shooter, and he just barely avoided the shooting in the break room himself.pic.twitter.com/niuGn4xIZL
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) November 23, 2022
‘He always had issues’
Briana Tyler, who had worked at the store for two months, told Good Morning America that he was the one to ‘look out for’.
‘There was always something going on with him just having an issue with someone but I never expected it would get to this level. He was the manager that everybody had something to say about.’ Witnesses also described seeing some bodies being carried out in shopping carts.
Jeromy Basham, who had been shopping, told The New York Times he saw at least one body being carried out in a cart. Two of the victims died in the hospital.
‘As soon as my team lead said, ‘”all right, we have a light night tonight,” I looked up and my manager just opened the door and he just opened fire.’
‘He wasn’t aiming at anybody specifically. He just literally started shooting throughout the entire break room and I watched multiple people just drop down to the floor, whether they were trying to duck for cover or they were hit.
‘He didn’t say a word, he didn’t say anything at all…
The Colorado Springs shooter will be rested to as Mx Aldridge and uses pronoun they/them and this is Andre Bing the Walmart shooter. So What happen to all the White Supremisist that Joe Biden warned us about ?????? pic.twitter.com/ZcvNan2DqM
— K Welsome (@kwelsome29) November 23, 2022
‘It didn’t even look real until you could feel the … ‘pow-pow-pow,’
‘He just came around the corner and started shooting,’ Briana Tyler told Good Morning America.
Others told of what they believed was a targeted, planned attack in which the gunman deliberately killed other managers.
Employee Jessie Wilczewski said she was hiding under a table when the gunman looked ‘right at her’ and told her to go home.
‘It didn’t even look real until you could feel the … ‘pow-pow-pow,’ you can feel it.
‘I couldn’t hear it at first because I guess it was so loud, I could feel it.’
One witness who survived the shooting told WAVY that the shooter had ‘issues’ with other managers in the store, which led her to believe the attack was ‘planned’.
On Wednesday morning, police raided the shooter’s three-bedroom home in Chesapeake, which is around three miles from the store.
The supercenter was open to the public at the time of the shooting – and cops said the Walmart may have been busy as shoppers were preparing for Thanksgiving. It was due to close at 11pm on Tuesday night.
Of note, the bloodbath comes as the second mass shooting in 3 days in the United States, with a 22 year old man fatally gunning down 5 patrons at a gay Colorado Springs nightclub over the weekend.
The Walmart bloodbath that left seven dead is the seventh mass shooting this month and one of 64 across America so far this year that have killed total of 286. When the scope is widened to include mass gun violence – when three or more people are killed OR injured – the number of dead reaches 635, with 2,541 injured.