Walmart worker shoots dead 6 people at Virginia store
- Police in Chesapeake said the suspect was also killed in the attack at the store bustling with Thanksgiving holiday shoppers
- Gun violence occurs at an alarming rate in the US, where more than 600 mass shootings have taken place so far in 2022
A Walmart employee shot dead six people at a store bustling with Thanksgiving holiday shoppers in Virginia, before turning the pistol on himself, police said on Wednesday, in the country’s second mass shooting in four days.
Four other people remained hospitalised in unknown condition following the Tuesday night rampage in the Walmart in Chesapeake, police chief Mark Solesky said.
Solesky told a news conference the gunman was believed to have died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” and that the motive behind the latest attack in America’s gun violence crisis was not immediately known.
It was also the second mass shooting in the state of Virginia this month: three students at the University of Virginia who played on its football team were killed on November 13 by a classmate after a field trip.
Emergency calls were first made just after 10pm (local time) on Tuesday, while the store was still open. Officers arrived in a matter of two minutes and entered the Walmart two minutes later, Solesky said.
