a walmart employee was shot carnage is battling for life in hospital in Virginia, a relative revealed on Wednesday.
Blake Williams, 23, was attached to a ventilator, but his family is expected to take him off life support, his cousin, Shannon Cheetham, 24, told The Post.
Williams usually works the day shift, taking night classes at Tidewater Community College.
Cheetham said that on the night of the shooting, however, he had traded shifts with another co-worker.
“He never made it home. He shouldn’t even have been here. Wrong place, wrong time,” she said.
Williams was studying to obtain his commercial driver’s license.
Cheetham said that her aunt, who has been in shock since the murder, told her about the attack.
“I was at work and my aunt called me and I picked up the phone and her voice was breaking and she was just screaming. Immediately I knew,” she said.
“I couldn’t even walk for a good 30 minutes.”
He remembered his cousin as an accomplished bassist.
“He was fun. He had a smile that lit up the room,” Cheetham said.
“He was outgoing. He was very polite for someone who had a lot going on. He was down to earth but extremely smart.’
“Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that you have family around and talk about life,” she continued. “Tomorrow is not going to be the same for a lot of people.”
gunman, night manager andre bingShortly before 10.15 pm, he fired at his colleagues.
Police said three victims, including Bing, were found dead in the store’s break room, while one deceased victim was found in front of the store. Police confirmed that Bing died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police said three other victims were taken to local hospitals for further treatment but they succumbed to their injuries.
Investigators have not yet determined the motive for the rampage. However, colleagues have bing described as “hostile” and difficult to work with.
Cheetham told The Post that Bing grew up in the Crestwood neighborhood of Chesapeake. She said she would see him growing up and later at the store.
“I used to see him at Walmart at night. He was nice, he would wave,” she said of the gunman.
“You would never have thought someone like that would do something so extreme. Blake never spoke badly about the job or Andre.
Police raided Bing’s house on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Chesapeake Police Department identified the fatal victims as Brian Pendleton, 38, of Chesapeake; Kelly Pyle, 52, of Chesapeake; Lorenzo Gamble, 43, of Chesapeake; Randy Blevins, 70, of Chesapeake; Tyneka Johnson, 22, of Portsmouth; and a 16-year-old boy from Chesapeake — who is being withheld because of his age, WAVY informed of,
Cheetham said she was also an acquaintance of Gamble, whom she met at Walmart and that everyone called her “Renzo”.
The two were a mutual friend and had gone out for drinks with some friends at local watering hole The Southern Flair Pub House.
“He came out on the dance floor and we had a ball,” she said. “It was a good night everyone.”