Everything we know about the Walmart Chesapeake mass shooting
Six victims have been killed and a gunman is dead following a mass shooting at a Walmart store in Chesapeake, Virginia, where a man believed to be a store manager allegedly opened fire on colleagues inside the break room.
The incident unfolded just after 10pm on Tuesday night at the superstore on Sam’s Circle.
It comes just days before Thanksgiving when shoppers were likely stocking up on goods ahead of the holiday season.
Details about the incident are still emerging, with a press conference planning to hold a press conference at 8am local time on Wednesday.
Here’s what we know so far about the mass shooting:
The shooting
Police were called to the store at around 10.12pm on Tuesday night to reports of a shooting.
Officers arrived on the scene to find multiple people dead and injured.
In a late-night press conference, Chesapeake Police public information officer Leo Kosinski said that the shooting was over before officers arrived and the assailant was dead.
He said that there was not believed to be an officer-involved shooting but stopped short of confirming whether or not the gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Initially police said that there had been up to 10 fatalities.
At around 5am local time, the City of Chesapeake confirmed that six victims and the gunman were dead following the attack.
At least five surviving victims were rushed to the Norfolk General Hospital for treatment.
The gunman
A law enforcement source told CNN that the shooter was an employee or former employee at the store who opened fire on other workers inside the break room.
Kevin Harper, a man who identified himself as a store worker, posted a Facebook Live from outside the store on Tuesday night, where he claimed he had just left the break room when “one of the managers” entered “and just started spraying”.
In the video, he claimed he had a near miss with the shooter as he had just left the break room when gunfire erupted.
“I’d just left out of the break room, manager come up in there, started capping people up in there, started shooting, bro. The manager came in, started dumping, man. As soon as I left out the break room he went in there, man... that s*** wild,” he says in the video.
Mr Harper claims it was “one of the managers” and that other “associates” died in the attack.
“It’s wild, though, it was the manager, one of the managers,” he says.
“Blew people’s brains out and everything... He came in and just started spraying and s***,” he adds.
“Sadly, though, we lost a few of our associates, I don’t know how many.”
Police have not confirmed the identity of the attacker but said that they are among the seven people dead.
This story is breaking and will be updated
