A Walmart manager walked silently into a staff break room and opened fire on colleagues before turning the pistol on himself in the latest deadly shooting in the US.
Seven people, including the gunman, were killed in the supermarket slaughter which happened during the busy Thanksgiving shopping period in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Walmart employee Briana Tyler told ABC’s Good Morning America the suspect said nothing as he began firing on the workers gathered ahead of their shift late on Tuesday (local time).
“I looked up and my manager just opened the door and he just opened fire,” Ms Tyler said.
“He didn’t say a word. He didn’t say anything at all.”
The shooter, identified as Andre Bing, 31, also injured at least four people, who were being treated at area hospitals, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky told a news conference on Wednesday.
He did not disclose a possible motive but said the suspect, who had worked there since 2010, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Briana Tyler describes what happened in the Walmart break room. Photo: AAP
It follows the deaths of five people at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub on Saturday.
Employees told media that the shooter was a manager at the cavernous Walmart Supercenter in the city of about 250,000 people.
Jessie Wilczewski told WAVY-TV that she hid under a table and the shooter pointed the gun at her and told her to go home.
“It didn’t even look real until you could feel the pow-pow-pow. You can feel it,” the store employee said.
“I couldn’t hear it at first because I guess it was so loud. I could feel it.”
Another employee, Kevin Harper, told CBS “by the grace of God I made it out”.
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An average of two mass shootings — defined as an incident killing or injuring four or more people — occur every day, according to GunViolenceArchive.org.
US President Joe Biden called the latest shooting “yet another horrific and senseless act of violence,” vowing any federal resources needed to aid in the investigation.
“There are now even more tables across the country that will have empty seats this Thanksgiving,” he said in a statement, noting a shooting earlier this month that left three University of Virginia students dead. “We must take greater action.”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was already facing calls to address gun violence after the University of Virginia killings, ordered flags at local, state and federal buildings to be flown at half-staff.
“Heinous acts of violence have no place in our communities,” Governor Youngkin wrote on Twitter.
Walmart in a statement said it was “shocked” at the violence at the Chesapeake store and it was working closely with law enforcement.
