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

Employees will continue to be paid, the company said.

ByMorgan Winsor, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Emily Shapiro, Meredith Deliso, Nadine El-Bawab, Beatrice Peterson, Arthur Jones II, and Jay O'Brien
Last Updated: November 29, 2022, 7:53 PM EST

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 24, 2022, 3:35 PM EST

Walmart employee spends Thanksgiving traumatized at home

There are those in Chesapeake, Virginia, who haven't celebrated a moment of Thanksgiving. Jessie Wilczewski, who'd only been on the job at Walmart for five days, told ABC News she is still haunted by images of the shooting.

"When I sleep like it still plays, bits and pieces, so I can’t run away from it, like I had to sit there on the floor and in front of me watch my coworker have her last moments," she said, with tears in her eyes.

The shooter spared Wilczewski's life, she said. Wilczewski believes the attack was targeted and she was let go because she had not worked with the shooter long.

"I looked at him after I got up from under the table and he saw it was me. And he had the gun pointed at me [gesturing] and he went like this and put the gun up. And then he just looked at me and said, ‘Jessie go home,'" Wilczewski said.

A mom of a 15-month-old boy, Wilczewski spent her Thanksgiving traumatized at home. The shades are drawn. Too many cars on the street can terrify her. Her biggest goal since the shooting was going to 7/11, which she accomplished on Thursday.

There are countless families in Chesapeake now facing this reality, reeling from tragedy on this holiday and preparing for a holiday season that won't feel the same.

-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Beatrice Peterson and Arthur Jones II

Nov 24, 2022, 3:29 PM EST

Walmart hosts Thanksgiving for store employees, families at Delta Hotel

Walmart hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for shaken store employees and their families at a Delta Hotel in Chesapeake, Virginia. Counselors and faith leaders were on hand to talk people through the shooting's immediate aftermath.

Whole families were seen going into counseling sessions together.

Six families in Chesapeake are without loved ones this Thanksgiving. Seven others have relatives in the hospital. And, countless people in the Chesapeake community are celebrating a holiday that will never be the same, after a store manager at a local Walmart opened fire on staff during a meeting Tuesday night.

-ABC News' Jay O'Brien, Beatrice Peterson and Arthur Jones II

Nov 24, 2022, 12:09 PM EST

2 victims remain hospitalized in critical condition

Two of the injured victims from Tuesday night's mass shooting at a Chesapeake Walmart remain hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, just north of Chesapeake, is continuing "to treat two patients who remain in critical condition," a spokesperson told ABC News on Thursday.

-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson

Nov 24, 2022, 6:48 AM EST

Governor orders flags to fly at half-staff through Sunday

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff over the state Capitol and all local, state and federal buildings and grounds across the commonwealth "in respect and memory of the victims of the Chesapeake shooting, their families, and the entire Chesapeake community."

"I hereby order that the flags shall be lowered immediately on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 and remain at half-staff until Sunday, November 27, 2022 at sunset," Youngkin said in a statement.