Chilling ‘manifesto’ on Walmart gunman Andre Bing’s phone reveals possible motive for Chesapeake shooting
Six Walmart workers were killed in the attack when Andre Bing, 31, allegedly opened fire in the break room before turning the gun on himself
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A chilling “manifesto” has been found on the cellphone of Walmart gunman Andre Bing, in which he allegedly laid out his motive for the horror mass shooting that left six coworkers dead and at least six other victims injured.
A law enforcement source told 10 On Your Side that, in the document, Bing, 31, described being “upset” about a recent change in employment status and complained that he was being “harassed” by fellow employees.
Officials have not confirmed the existence of the manifesto and are yet to reveal the motive for Tuesday night’s massacre.
However, several of Bing’s colleagues at the store in Chesapeake, Virginia, have spoken out to reveal that he had a lot of “issues” with other staff members and had displayed threatening behaviour in the run-up to the shooting.
Joshua Johnson, a former Walmart employee who worked as a maintenance worker at the store until 2019, said that the 31-year-old had given a harrowing warning about what he could do if he ever lost his job.
“He said if he ever got fired from his job he would retaliate and people would remember who he was,” Mr Johnson told CNN.
Another former employee, who worked with the alleged gunman at the store from 2015 to 2018, revealed that he was paranoid about the government watching him.
“He was always saying the government was watching him. He didn’t like social media and he kept black tape on his phone camera. Everyone always thought something was wrong with him,” said Shaundrayia Reese.
“He didn’t like to be recorded. He was always scared that the government was listening.”
A Walmart employee who survived the shooting told 10 On Your Side that she believed the attack was planned because the perpetrator was known to have “issues” with other managers at the branch.
He appeared to target other managers and was heard laughing at one point during the attack, she claimed.
Despite the instances of concerning behaviour, Bing’s coworkers were shocked that he would go on to carry out a mass shooting at the store.
“I mean, from what I saw, he was a good guy, but I’ve heard that he had issues, and they tried to talk him through his issues,” a worker told the local outlet, adding that they “never saw this coming, not from a million miles away”.
Walmart confirmed on Wednesday that the gunman who allegedly killed six victims before turning the gun on himself was a night manager at the store.
In a statement, the retail giant said that Bing was an overnight team lead at the Chesapeake superstore and had worked at the company since 2010.
The six victims killed in the attack also all worked at the store. They were identified as: Lorenzo Gamble, Brian Pendleton, Kellie Pyle, Randall Blevins, and Tyneka Johnson, with the sixth victim not being publicly named as he is a minor. He is described as a 16-year-old boy from Chesapeake.
The shooting unfolded inside the store break room when witnesses say the suspect entered and began “spraying” bullets around the room, before turning the gun on himself.
Police were called to reports of an active shooting at the store at 10.12pm on Tuesday.
The first officers arrived on the scene two minutes later at 10.14pm and entered the store two minutes after that at around 10.16pm.
Officers found the suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the break room along with two of his alleged victims. Another victim was found dead toward the front of the store. Three other victims were rushed to hospital where they died from their injuries.
At least six other surviving victims were taken to local hospitals for further treatment.
One of those victims – Blake Williams – is fighting for his life on a ventilator after being shot in the attack, his family members have revealed.
His cousin told the New York Post that he wasn’t even supposed to be working that night but covered a shift for a colleague. He is now unable to breathe on his own and his family are expected to take him off life support.
Police confirmed that Bing was armed with one handgun and several gun magazines and was dressed in civilian clothing at the time of the attack.
A search warrant was executed on the suspect’s home in the aftermath of the shooting, with Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky confirming that there was “no ongoing risk to the public”.
President Joe Biden condemned the attack, coming two days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Because of yet another horrific and senseless act of violence, there are now even more tables across the country that will have empty seats this Thanksgiving,” he said.
The mass shooting marks just the latest to rock America, after a gunman opened fire inside an LGBT+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday night.
Five people were killed and 17 others injured when suspected gunman Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire inside Club Q in Colorado Springs on Saturday night.
The massacre came to an end when heroic clubgoers tackled the shooter to the ground and detained him until police arrived on the scene.
The five victims killed in that attack were identified as Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Vance.
This came after another mass shooting in the state of Virginia on 13 November, when three star football players from the University of Virginia were shot and killed as they returned to campus from a field trip.
Fellow student and former football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, allegedly opened fire on the bus.
Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were killed in the attack, while two other were injured but survived.
Mr Jones was arrested the following day and charged with murder and other charges.
Back in 2019, a Walmart store was also the site of another horror mass shooting. A total of 23 people were killed in a mass shooting in a store in the city of El Paso, Texas.