‘Missing my baby’: 6 dead in Virginia Walmart shooting

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — Guardian and father of two children. A mother with wedding plans. A carefree guy.

This is how friends and family described some of the six people who died at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, when a manager opened fire with a handgun just before an employee meeting. Five adults have been identified, while authorities have not released the name of the sixth person killed, a 16-year-old boy.

Here are some details about the ones that were missed:

Pyle was remembered as a generous and kind person, a mother who had wedding plans in the near future.

“We love her,” said Gwendolyn Bowe Baker Spencer. “She was going to marry my son next year. She was an amazing and kind person, she yes she was”.

Pyle had adult children in Kentucky who will be traveling to Virginia after the tragedy, Spencer said.

Pendleton made sure to be on time. Although his shift as janitor began at 10:30 p.m., he was in the break room when the shooting began shortly after 10 p.m., according to his mother, Michelle Johnson.

“He would always come to work early to get to work on time,” he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “He liked his coworkers.”

Pendleton had recently celebrated his 10th anniversary working at the store.

His mother said she didn’t have any problems at work except with a supervisor, Andre Bing, who was identified as the gunman.

“He just didn’t like my son,” Johnson said. “He was telling me that he (Bing) would give him a hard time.”

Pendleton was born with a congenital brain disorder and grew up in Chesapeake, his mother said.

“He called me yesterday before he went to work,” Johnson said. “I always tell him to call me when he gets off work.”

As he was getting ready for bed, Johnson received a call from a family friend that there was a shooting at Walmart.

“Brian was a carefree guy. Brian loved family. Brian loved his friends. He loved to tell jokes, ”said his mother. “We are going to miss it”.

Gamble was a night shift janitor who had worked at Walmart for 15 years, The Washington Post reported.

His parents, Linda and Alonzo Gamble, said that he loved spending time with their two children.

“He just kept quiet and did his job,” Linda Gamble said. “He was the quiet one in the family.”

His mother said Gamble liked to go to her 19-year-old son’s football games and cheer on the Washington Commanders NFL team.

He posted on Facebook that he is having trouble saying goodbye.

“I miss my baby right now, life is not the same without my son,” she wrote.

Blevins was a longtime member of the store’s team that set prices and organized merchandise, The New York Times reported.

Former co-worker Shaundrayia Reese, who said she worked at the store from around 2015 to 2018, spoke fondly of Blevins as “Mr. Horny.”

He said the store’s night staff were “family” and that the employees trusted each other.

A makeshift memorial to Johnson was placed on a grassy area outside the Walmart, bearing the words “Our hearts go out to you” and a basket of flowers.

The souvenir included a group of blue, white and gold balloons tied to a tree, along with a yellow line of police tape.

Kelleher contributed to this report from Honolulu.