What we know about the victims of the Virginia Walmart shooting
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Crosses, placed for the victims of the Walmart shooting, are placed in the parking lot of the Walmart on Nov. 25. Photo: Mike Caudill/for The Washington Post via Getty Images
New details have emerged from the shooting at a Walmart store in Chesapeake, Virginia, last Tuesday, including the names and identities of the six fatal victims.
The latest: Community members gathered outside the store on Thanksgiving to pay their respects to the six people who died in the massacre, CNN reports.
The big picture: Police identified the shooter as an overnight team leader who had worked at Walmart since 2010. The shooter allegedly wrote a "death note" before the massacre began, which read, in part, "My God forgive me for what I’m going to do …"
- The manager allegedly opened fire in a break room where the team gathered, the New York Times reports.
Walmart shooting victims
The victims' names and details about them have been shared by multiple reports.
Randall Blevins was a 70-year-old coin collector and father. Fellow employees said that Blevins was a kind person, NPR reports.
- “There wasn’t any way anybody could have had a grudge against him,” his cousin, Virgil Wimmer, told the Washington Post. “He’s the last one you’d expect something like this to happen to. There is absolutely nothing bad I could say about him, even if he was living.”
Lorenzo Gamble was a 43-year-old father who was always spending time with his two sons — in addition to rooting for the Washington Commanders, according to the Post. He also had a highly cherished Mustang GT and often changed the rims of the car.
- “He just kept to himself and did his job,” his mother told the Post. “He was the quiet one of the family.”
Brian Pendleton, who was 38, worked as a maintenance employee and often offered support to the other workers, according to the Times.
- “He loved his job,” his mother told the Washington Post. “I want everybody to know that he loved his job at Walmart. He loved the friends that he had there.”
Kellie Pyle was a 52-year-old woman and a newer employee, who was due to be married next year, according to the Times.
- Pyle had recently moved back to her hometown and connected with her high school sweetheart, according to the Post. She was also thrilled to be living near her cousin, Billy Pillar-Gibson.
- “We always said we were going to grow old together,” Pillar-Gibson told the Post. “None of this makes sense. In the whole scheme of things, we’re still young.”
Tyneka Johnson was a 22-year-old woman who was described as kindhearted, per the Times. She was also a new employee at the store and the first victim to be identified publicly, per Yahoo News.
- Her former tutor Casheba Cannon told the Post that Johnson always put education first.
- “Education was in the forefront. Her family did whatever they had to do to make sure she got assistance,” Cannon recalled.
Fernando Chavez-Barron, a 16-year-old employee who was also killed, reportedly used his first paycheck to buy his mother a present, CNN reports.
- "I'm out of words, and speechless that it was him," Chavez-Barron's friend, Joshua Trejo-Alvarado, told WTKR. "I was hoping everything was a dream until today. I wish he was still standing here with me. I prayed yesterday night with my whole family for him. We got flowers and candles at home for him, too."
Go deeper:
Chesapeake shooting suspect wrote "death note" before massacre
"Red flag" laws test evidence that mass shootings are preventable
