Virginia Walmart mass shooting: Store to close for the 'foreseeable future'

Employees will continue to be paid, the company said.

A Virginia community is reeling after a man armed with a handgun shot and killed six people and injured several others in a mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake.

Survivors said the gunman walked into a break room and opened fire on Nov. 22.

The suspect, a current employee, died at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Two victims remain in the hospital and two have been released, Walmart said Tuesday.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 23, 2022, 2:17 PM EST

Gunman didn't say anything, just 'started shooting'

Walmart employee Briana Tyler said she was with her co-workers in the break room around 10 p.m. when the gunfire broke out.

"My manager just opened the door and he just opened fire," Tyler told ABC News. "He wasn't aiming at anybody specifically. He just literally started shooting throughout the entire break room and I watched multiple people just drop down to the floor, whether they were trying to duck for cover or they were hit."

Tyler said the gunman looked "directly at" her and fired, but "luckily missed" her head by "an inch or two."

"He didn't say a word, he didn't say anything at all," she said. "He just came around the corner and started shooting. The first person that was in his eyesight, he shot him down.”

Walmart employee Briana Tyler said she was with her co-workers in the break room around 10 p.m. when the gunfire broke out.
2:03

Walmart gunman ‘looked directly at me,’ employee says

Walmart employee Briana Tyler said she was with her co-workers in the break room around 10 p.m. when the gunfire broke out.

In another interview with ABC News later on Wednesday, she said the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Andre Bing, "was quiet and to himself" and "gave off ... the loner type."

"I've never once had, like, a joyous, fun conversation with him. It was always about work and that was it," she explained. "With everybody else, you know, a lot of people will, they laugh, they joke, I have other supervisors that I can, you know, talk to casually. But with him ... he wasn't like the fun, bubbly type of person."

Tyler, 28, is a mom to a 4-year-old son.

Briana Tyler speaks with The Associated Press about witnessing the mass shooting at a Walmart, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, in Chesapeake, Va.
Alex Brandon/AP

She said the shooting “taught me that life can literally be taken from you at the blink of an eye,” even when “doing something as innocently as trying to go to work.”

“So I would just say just reach out to the ones you love, keep an open relationship with them, do your best … because at the end of the day, you genuinely never know when you will look your child or your mother in their eyes again,” she said.

Nov 23, 2022, 1:35 PM EST

Suspect ID'd as 31-year-old Walmart employee Andre Bing

The suspect was identified by city officials as 31-year-old Andre Bing of Chesapeake. Walmart said he worked at the store as an overnight team lead and had been an employee since 2010.

Bing was armed with a handgun and had multiple magazines, officials said.

Police left tire tracks in the front lawn after they served a search warrant at home of the suspected shooter of a mass shooting at a Walmart, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022, in Chesapeake, Va.
Alex Brandon/AP

“We are focused on doing everything we can to support our associates and their families,” Walmart officials said in a statement. “We are thankful for the local first responders and will continue to work with local law enforcement as they continue their investigation.”

A memorial is seen at the site of a fatal shooting in a Walmart, Nov. 23, 2022 in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Nov 23, 2022, 1:20 PM EST

DHS combatting ‘all forms of targeted violence’

"We mourn the tragic and senseless loss of life in Chesapeake, Virginia," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

Mayarkas said DHS "continues to devote every available resource to combat all forms of targeted violence. We provide information, funding, training, and other resources to communities throughout our country to enable them to prevent and respond to these horrific acts."

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Nov 23, 2022, 12:19 PM EST

6 hospitalized, 1 in critical condition

Six people were injured and hospitalized after Tuesday night’s Walmart mass shooting, officials said, including one victim in critical condition.

A makeshift memorial in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter where a mass shooting took place in Chesapeake, Virginia, USA, 23 Nov. 2022.
SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Three of the six victims killed in the shooting died at hospitals and the other three were pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

Two victims were found dead in the store’s break room, where the shooter’s body was found, officials said. Another victim’s body was found toward the front of the store.