CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) – The FBI and Chesapeake Police have completed their on-scene investigation at the Walmart where an employee shot and killed six and injured three others before turning the gun on himself.
While the investigation into the shooting will continue, Leo Kosinski, a Chesapeake Police Department spokesperson, confirmed investigators cleared the scene of the store on Sam Circle Saturday afternoon, four days after the shooting.
The store will now be handed back to Walmart, which will determine what comes next for the location, Kosinski said. Crime tape still surrounds the Walmart Superstore property, at Walmart’s request.
Saturday night, 10 On Your Side crews witnessed private security arriving onsite and standing outside of the store.
While Walmart has inferred the store will reopen, a date has not been set.
We’ll continue focusing our attention on offering support to our associates, families and loved ones in every way possible. We will work very closely with our associates and rely on their input to determine the best time to reopen the store.
Walmart Spokesperson
In the meantime, the Sam’s Club two doors down is temporarily waiving its membership requirement for shoppers. Sam’s Club is a division of Walmart Inc.
Chesapeake Mayor Rick West hopes the company considers “refreshing” the store.
“Hopefully there will be some changes,” West said. “With a kind of disaster like that, you don’t really want to go back to the same environment.”
The Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the site of a 2019 mass shooting that left 23 dead, was closed for three months while the company remodeled and even repainted the outside of the store.
Regardless, West hopes all members of the public exhibit patience with all employees as well as victims families in the coming months.
He said while the city’s human services staff is reaching out to those most closely affected to provide support, recovery will not be fast.
“Some of (the victims’ families) now are still in such shock,” West said. “They can’t even assess their own needs it’s going to take time, it’s going to take persistence and understanding.
“This vigil, I’m telling you, is a powerful way of making a statement, so I hope we can get a lot of folks (who) will come out to show their prayers and the support for these families.”