Walmart waits to reopen Chesapeake store after mass shooting; Tops’ shooting suspect pleads guilty

Walmart on Monday said it was working with store employees to determine the “best time” to reopen one of its supercenters in Chesapeake, Virginia, less than a week after an overnight manager opened fire there and killed six people.

“We’ll continue focusing our attention on offering support to our associates, families and loved ones in every way possible,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement to WGB. “We will work very closely with our associates and rely on their input to determine the best time to reopen the store.”

Late last Tuesday night, an overnight team leader who’d worked for Walmart since 2010 fired a 9mm handgun in the employee breakroom and elsewhere in the store before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The victims, according to the city of Chesapeake, were Lorenzo Gamble, Brian Pendleton, Kellie Pyle, Randall Blevins, Tyneka Johnson and Fernando Chavez-Barron, who was 16 years old.

The FBI and Chesapeake forensic unit completed the crime scene investigation at the Walmart on Saturday, though the city said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

“The devastating news of last night’s shooting at our Chesapeake, Virginia, store at the hands of one of our associates has hit our Walmart family hard,” Walmart CEO and President Doug McMillon posted on social media in the wake of the violence. “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.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, the suspect charged with killing 10 people at a Tops Friendly Market Buffalo, New York, store in May pleaded guilty to 25 state charges—including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three counts of attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of domestic terrorism in the first degree, motivated by hate.

Nineteen-year-old Payton Gendron will be sentenced on February 15 and faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Additionally, he still faces federal hate-crime charges.

Some of the victims’ family members reacted to the guilty pleas during a press conference on Monday with civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsel Terry Connors. One family member—Mark Talley, son of Geraldine Talley, a 62-year-old woman killed in the Tops shooting—spoke about gun control and the stream of reports of mass shootings, including the recent Walmart killings.

“You don’t hear about how there needs to be more legislation for gun control,” said Talley during the press conference. “2022 is going on record now as the most mass shooting attacks ever, with over plus-five people being killed considered a mass attack. 2022 has the most so far recorded ever,” Talley said.

Crump said he will work to seek justice for those killed in Buffalo.

“We demand equal justice,” he said at the press conference while addressing the victims’ families. “Your loved ones were not insignificant, they were not inferior, they were not irrelevant. ... They were important, and it’s important that your voices continue to be heard to let the world know that they matter.”