A witness in the deadly shooting by a Walmart supervisor who six killed coworkers in Virginia says the suspect was acting like he was going hunting, seeming to target certain people… even the fallen who seemed to be dead.
Walmart supervisor goes on shooting rampage against coworkers
An overnight crew of 15-20 employees at a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart had gathered in the break room to go over their plan. Just as the routine employee meeting was about to begin, one team leader said to the others: “Alright, guys, we have a light night ahead of us.”
Then Andre Bing, 31, an overnight team leader who had been a Walmart employee since 2010, pulled out a handgun and began firing wildly around the break room. Police say Bing had a single handgun with several magazines of ammunition.
One employee doubted the shooting was real, thinking it might be an active shooter drill, the Associated Press reported.
“It was all happening so fast,” employee Briana Tyler said. But what she saw next left no doubt that it was real. ” I saw the smoke leaving the gun, and I literally watched bodies drop. It was crazy.”
Suspect appeared to be targeting certain people
Although one employee described Andre Bing as shooting wildly, another employee, Jessica Wilczewski, said she observed him seeming to target certain people.
“The way he was acting — he was going hunting,” Wilczewski told the AP, ABC reported. “The way he was looking at people’s faces and the way he did what he did, he was picking people out.”
Wilczewski said Bing recognized one employee hiding under the table, whom he told to leave.
“Jessie, go home,” Bing told the woman, according to Wilczewski, who says the woman slowly got up and ran out of the store. Wilczewski believes that particular employee was spared because she was new.
Wilczewski said she observed him shoot at people who were already on the ground.
“What I do know is that he made sure who he wanted dead, was dead,” Wilczewski continued. “He went back and shot dead bodies that were already dead. To make sure.”
Police identified six victims who died in the shooting: Brian Pendleton, 38; Kellie Pyle, 52; Lorenzo Gamble, 43; and Randy Blevins, 70, who were all from Chesapeake. Tyneka Johnson, 22, of nearby Portsmouth, also numbered among the fallen. Another victim was a 16-year-old boy whose name was being withheld due to his age.
Shooter left note, purchased the gun only hours before
Police say Bing purchased the nine-millimeter handgun used in the shooting just hours before the killings. He also left a note on his phone, accusing colleagues of mocking him, according to police, ABC reported.
“Sorry everyone but I did not plan this,” Bing said in the note. “I promise things just fell in place like I was led by the Satan.”
“My only wish would have been to start over from scratch and that my parents would have paid closer attention to my social deficits,” Bing confessed in the note.
Police say Bing died at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Bing once admitted he had “anger issues”
Bing had a reputation among employees for being an aggressive and sometimes hostile supervisor who had once admitted to having “anger issues.” One employee said he was known for being “verbally hostile” to employees and wasn’t particularly well-liked.
Tyler said other employees told her that Bing was “the manager to look out for,” and he had a history of writing people up for no reason.
“He just liked to pick, honestly,” Tyler said. “I think he just looked for little things … because he had the authority. That’s just the type of person that he was. That’s what a lot of people said about him.”
