There is no time for so much wake in the United States before the succession of massacres, nor tears nor prayers to pray for the armed epidemic that poisons this country, which pays tribute to the pistol as if it were a crucifix.
The corpses of the five dead from the weekend are still warm, in an LGBTQ club in Colorando Springs, when a Walmart supermarket, in Chesapeake, on the southern coast of Virginia, takes the tragedy of the Colorado city out of the headlines. At least seven people were killed, including the gunman, on Tuesday night in this new shooting at a shopping center, just on a day when citizens carry out their routine and massive purchases for the Thanksgiving celebration this Thursday.
Not even the week of the holidays for the commemoration of Thanksgiving, the supposed festival of concord between Americans, a date that due to its secular nature allows the general embrace although the Native Americans are not so clear about it, stopped the madness that arouses weapons.
On this occasion, the alleged perpetrator was found dead at the scene, Police Chief Mark Salesky confirmed. He turned the gun on himself. There were four people admitted to a Norfolk hospital.
Salesky, at a press conference this Wednesday, indicated that the gunman acted alone and that he was an employee of that Walmart. He entered armed with a gun, everything indicates with a clear idea who he wanted to act against and then he committed suicide. The police did not fire a single shot because the danger had already ended.
Police conducted a search of the gunman's home and found nothing endangering public safety. Despite having his identity, Salesky said he still could not be made public for investigative purposes. He also could not say if the victims were other employees.
But on the networks, based on various testimonies, it spread that the author's name is Andre Marcus Bing, born in 1991. He worked as a manager on the night shift and, after shooting a woman in the head, he killed an employee of maintenance and opened fire in the break room and fired at least ten shots in the feed section.
Chief Salesky explained that the police received the emergency call at 10:12 p.m. (East Coast) and that they reached the center in two minutes. Two others were carrying out an inspection from the outside and entered two minutes later, at 10:16 p.m.
Once inside the compound, the agents spent about 40 minutes searching the establishment and looking for possible injuries and deaths. The attacker was found lifeless. All the bodies were found inside the supermarket, except one, which was outside.
Again there was talk of whether this would finally be the political awakening for legislators to do something to try to stop gun violence. Once again and there are already many without progress. Many politicians returned to express their condolences, which are then carried away by the wind. According to the databases that record these cases, this year is especially bad. The US has already had 40 killings (at least four dead), the second worst after 2019.
“It is very sad that this happens a couple of days before Thanksgiving,” Mayor Rick W. West lamented in a statement since he is confined for testing positive for covid. There is no calendar that stops misdeeds of this type.
Neighbors in the area explained that the supermarket was especially full on Tuesday night. This was remembered by a client who was in the premises barely twenty minutes after the shooting was recorded.
"People were very animated, with the typical expressions of camaraderie that occur on the eve of this celebration, talking about the plans for Thanksgiving," Terri Brown told ABC.
"We are totally disturbed by this tragic event," the supermarket chain stressed in a statement on Wednesday. "We pray for all those who have suffered the impact, for the community and we work with the police to clarify it," he added.
The one at this Walmart is one more of the attacks suffered by these establishments in recent years. In 2019, a 21-year-old gunman, who was hunting Hispanics, left 23 dead and another 26 injured in a shooting at the Walmart in El Paso (Texas). Last May, in Buffalo (New York), a teenager opened fire in a Tops supermarket, in an area with an African-American population, killing 10 people.
“I am devastated by this senseless act of violence,” said Mayor Rick W. West. “Chesapeake is a very close community and we are all moved by this news,” he reiterated.
Joeta Jeffery told CNN that she received a message from her mother, who was inside the store during the shooting. Her mother, Betsy Umphlett, escaped unharmed. “I'm still shaking. He just talked to her about buying her turkey and shortly after I got her message about the shooting,” she said.
