Police: 6 people, assailant dead in Walmart shooting
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CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — A shooting at a Walmart in Virginia on Tuesday night left several people dead. Police say six people and the assailant are in the shooting in Chesapeake.
Officers responding to a report of a shooting in Chesapeake found several victims as they swept through the store over the course of about 40 minutes, Officer Leo Kosinski said in a briefing. Rescue teams were sent in to treat the wounded. He did not know how many people died but said it was "less than 10, right now."
It was the second high-profile shooting in a handful of days. A person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado late Saturday, killing five people and wounding 17. The shootings come in a year when the country was shaken by the deaths of 21 when a gunman stormed an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Tuesday's shooting also brought back memories of another at a Walmart in 2019, when a gunman police say was targeting Mexicans opened fire at a store in El Paso and killed 22 people.
Police believe there was one shooter at the Virginia Walmart who is dead, Kosinski said. He couldn't say how the gunman died but said he didn't believe police fired shots.
The shooting had apparently stopped when police arrived at the store in Chesapeake, which is Virginia's second-largest city and lies next to the seaside communities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Mike Kafka, a spokesman for Sentara Healthcare, said in a text message that five patients from the Walmart were being treated at Norfolk General Hospital. Their conditions weren't immediately available.
Walmart tweeted early Wednesday that it was "shocked at this tragic event."
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said in a tweet that he was "sickened by reports of yet another mass shooting, this time at a Walmart in Chesapeake."
State Sen. Louise Lucas echoed Warner's sentiment, tweeting that she was "absolutely heartbroken that America's latest mass shooting took place in a Walmart in my district."
