Gun attack in Walmart store in Virginia the second US mass shooting in three days

A gunman who killed six people and injured four others at a Walmart outlet in Virginia was an employee of the store, police have said.

The gun attack in Chesapeake, about 330km from Washington DC, was the second high profile mass shooting in the United States in the last three days and came just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Police in Chesapeake said the gunman had used a pistol and was found dead at the scene, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

President Joe Biden called the shooting “horrific and senseless” and called for action on gun reform. “We must come together as a nation . . . We must take greater action,” he said.

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There have been hundreds of gun attacks across the United States this year.

US organisations monitoring gun violence define mass shootings differently, depending on the circumstances, numbers of victims, whether the victims were killed or wounded and whether the attack took place in a public location.

One organisation, the Gun Violence Archive, says there have been at least 606 mass shootings in 2022 up to mid November. The archive is a non-profit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, news coverage and other public sources. It defines a mass shooting as one in which four people were killed or injured

Of the 606 shootings it recorded this year, 20 involved five or more fatalities, including the attack at the Walmart store in Chesapeake. The Gun Violence Archive recorded nearly 700 mass shootings last year.

Chesapeake police chief Mark Solesky said there was “no clear motive at this time” regarding the shooting in Virginia on Tuesday. He said he had no indication that the gunman had been known to police before the shooting.

Chief Solesky said the suspect was believed to have acted alone.

“We have reason to believe that there is no risk to the public at this time”, he said.

He added he could not identify the gunman until next of kin had been notified, but confirmed that he was an employee at the Walmart. He said police had been alerted at about 10.15pm on Tuesday and arrived on the scene within two minutes.

US media reported that the shooting took place just before the store was due to close and occurred in a break room.

The attack in Virginia took place just days after five people were killed and about a dozen injured at an LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs in Colorado last weekend. A 22-year-old man accused of carrying out the mass shooting in Colorado was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday for the first time.

The man, identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, was expected to face murder and hate crime charges.