Teenage employee killed in Virginia Walmart shooting wanted to help his family
- Share via
CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Authorities on Friday released the name of the teenager who was among six Walmart employees shot to death by a store manager in Chesapeake, Va.
He was 16-year-old Fernando Chavez-Barron. The Chesapeake youth and five adults died after Walmart supervisor Andre Bing opened fire before a staff meeting inside the store’s break room Tuesday night.
Fernando’s family and friends dressed in white to honor him at a vigil in the Walmart parking lot Thursday night. His friends told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that it was hard to believe that he was gone.
Family friend Rosy Perez told the New York Times that the teen attended a local high school while working the overnight shift at Walmart to assist his family.
A doting father of two, a mother with wedding plans and a happy-go-lucky guy were among the six people killed in a shooting at a Virginia Walmart.
“He wanted to help a little bit,” Perez said. “He was a very good child.”
The five adult victims were identified late Wednesday as Brian Pendleton, 38; Kellie Pyle, 52; Lorenzo Gamble, 43; Randy Blevins, 70; and Tyneka Johnson, 22. All were from Chesapeake except Johnson, who was from nearby Portsmouth.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
Author and CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti attempts to answer some questions about rebuilding communities in his new book about the Palisades Fire — and names a motive for a quick rebuild: the Olympic games coming to Los Angeles in 2028.
Today we discuss one of the pivotal events of the 1960s: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Though the gunman was caught at the scene, confessed at trial, and even bragged about the shooting, his motives have largely been forgotten.
Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.” At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog.
