A night shift employee at the Walmart where six people were killed late Tuesday night in Chesapeake, Va., said she witnessed the shooting, and identified the gunman as the store’s overnight manager.
The employee, Donya Prioleau, said she was in the break room when the manager entered and opened fire on her fellow employees without a word.
“I just watched three of my friends killed in front of me,” she said in a text message to The New York Times.
Officials have not identified the gunman, who they said was armed with a pistol. He appeared to have killed himself, according to the local police.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Ms. Prioleau said that many of the overnight employees at the store were “like a family,” and admonished people for making jokes on social media about the shooting.
“I was directly in front of it,” she said in a brief, tearful phone interview. She added, “None of us deserved to witness that.”
Kitty Bennett contributed research.