By Oleen Ndori
A gunman has killed up to 10 people in a Walmart supermarket in the US state of Virginia before turning the gun on himself.
The outburst of gun violence in the city of Chesapeake comes just before Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and follows another mass shooting at a club in Colorado late Saturday that left five people dead.
Authorities say the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich used a long rifle at the club, where partygoers were marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Chesapeake Police Department Officer, Leo Kosinski told reporters at the scene that they recorded multiple fatalities and injuries.
“At 10:12 pm, our emergency dispatch centre received a call for a shooting that occurred at the Walmart on Sam Circle. We go inside, long story short for the next 30, and 40 minutes, we were able to find multiple fatalities and multiple injured parties.
“With the Chesapeake Fire department, we were able to put rescue and tactical teams together to go inside to provide life-saving measures rapidly and quickly. Through the course of the investigation, we believe it was a single shooter. And we believe that the shooter is deceased at this time. Officers are still on the scene right now, combing through the building just to be sure,” he said.
According to the Gun Violence Archive website, gun violence occurs at an alarming rate in the United States, where more than 600 mass shootings have occurred in 2022.
