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Police chief James Cervera said a Virginia Beach city official who shot “indiscriminately” killed at least 11 people in a city office building on Friday afternoon. The suspect, a public utility employee, died after a shootout with police, the boss said.
At least six other people were injured and taken to hospitals, including a police officer rescued by his bulletproof vest. The shooting began in the public works office building next to City Hall, and the shooter moved to several floors, police said.
A reporter for local NBC subsidiary WAVY said a source told him the suspect was “a former employee who was actually fired from town yesterday.”
Councilor Barbara Henley told the Associated Press that she realized what was happening when she approached a group of people who had gathered outside City Hall at 4 p.m.
“Somebody told me there was a shootout and they should go. Then I heard a loud male voice say: “Get down!” So I did it, “Henley told the AP. “When the person said to get down, they all dispersed pretty quickly,” she said.
“I’m just sick. All these people I work with all the time, ”she said. “They are so really good people and I just hope they are all safe.”
The scale of the tragedy is on par with the worst shootings of 2018, including the October shooting at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 dead. the Santa Fe High School, Texas shooting in May that killed 10 people; and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which shot 17 dead in Parkland in February.
The Virginian Pilot newspaper quoted Mayor Bobby Dyer as saying, “This is the worst day in Virginia Beach history.”