The Walmart shooter who opened fire inside the break room of the Chesapeake store where he worked for years, had a list of people he wished to kill. Police said that they recovered a "death list" next to the body of Andre Bing, 31, and contained names of co-workers that authorities believe were targeted in the shooting.
Bing, who was a manager at the store, opened fire in the breakroom of the Walmart in Sam's Circuit, Chesapeake, at 10.12 pm last night, where 14 employees had gathered for a pre-shift meeting. His rampage killed six people, including a 16-year-old boy, before he turned the gun on himself.
Targeted Attack by a Disturbed Mind
Police believe Bing targeted his colleagues and wanted to kill them. At the time, there were 50 people inside the shop, probably running some last-minute Thanksgiving errands. He opened fire on 10 employees who had gathered in the break room for a shift meeting.
His body was found in the break room, next to the bodies of two other employees who had been fatally shot.
According to local Virginia outlet WAVY, which cited an unnamed source, when police searched his body, they discovered a list of names on it that included the names of the colleagues he intended to kill.
It is believed that the employees killed in the mass shooting were all his targets although police didn't say whose names were on the list and how many names were there.
A third body was found at the front of the store. Three more people were injured and transported to the hospital, where they later died.
Four persons remain in the hospital, with no further details on their injuries. Former colleagues referred to Bing as on Wednesday as "strange" and said he taped up his phone's camera because of a neurotic fear of being watched by the authorities.
Police said that Bing was "armed with one handgun and had multiple magazines on his person."
It is still unclear if he owned the handgun legally or the "multiple rounds" of ammunition he carried with him. He was not wearing a protective vest, according to the police, and was instead dressed in "civilian" attire.
Odd Behavior With Several Issues
Police said that Bing was a manager at the Walmart store and had been working there since 2010. He had worked at the store the previous night but was not scheduled for the fatal shift on Tuesday. Also, the motive behind the mass shooting remains unclear.
Bing's co-workers described him as "weird" and paranoid, going as far as covering the camera on his phone in fear of being monitored by the U.S. government.
"Everyone called him weird. That was all anyone could say about Andre," Shaundrayia Reese, who previously worked with him, told The New York Times.
She continued, saying that he had a "nasty attitude," which other employees had also mentioned.
"He had an attitude. He was kind of aggressive. There were moments where he was OK, but he was definitely hard to work with and a little hostile," Nathan Sinclair, who also used to work with him, said.
"He was the type of guy who said, 'I go to work and go home, I don't have social life," Josh Johnson said on Bing's persona.
Police also said that Bing didn't have any accounts on social media.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a LinkedIn statement of his own: "The devastating news of last night's shooting at our Chesapeake, VA store at the hands of one of our associates has hit our Walmart family hard. My heart hurts for our associates and the Chesapeake community who have lost or injured loved ones. We are here for them today and in the challenging days ahead they will have our support.
"We appreciate all of our associates, first responders, and local officials who are already on site helping offer support as we work together to navigate this tragedy."
Other employees also said that Bing was a bit "weird" and the management was informed about his odd behavior. He was the one to "watch out for," said Briana Tyler, who had been employed there for two months.
"There was always something going on with him just having an issue with someone but I never expected it would get to this level. He was the manager that everybody had something to say about."
Donya Prioleau, a colleague, who was in the break room and survived the attack, said that when Bing arrived and started shooting, he "spoke a lot of disturbing things."
"[Bing] came in, shot three of my friends ... Half of us didn't believe it was real until some of us saw all the blood on the floor," she told CNN. Prioleau also described Bing as "condescending" and lacking "good communication skills," and said he was "quite mean to a lot of us."
The shooting claimed the lives of six co-workers at Bing's place of employment, including Tyneka Johnson, age 21. Bing then turned the gun on himself after the killings.
Police searched the shooter's three-bedroom Chesapeake home on Wednesday morning. Chesapeake is about three miles from the business. At the time of the incident, the supercenter was open to the public, and police speculated that it may have been busy since people were getting ready for Thanksgiving. It was scheduled to close on Tuesday night at 11 p.m.
