CNN
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Though Jessie Wilczewski had only been working at the Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart for a few days, her Tuesday night shift started like all the rest, with a routine team meeting in the break room.
But moments after that meeting began, Wilczewski found herself face to face with her team leader, who held a gun to her forehead after having shot her coworkers.
She managed to escape and make it back home to her 15-month-old, but she told CNN the night – and the sound of blood hitting the floor – keeps replaying in her head.
Six of her colleagues – including a teenager – were killed in the massacre after the gunman, who Chesapeake city officials identified as 31-year-old Andre Bing, began indiscriminately firing into the room where employees had gathered for a meeting.
According to a statement from Walmart, Bing, was a “team lead” for the store’s overnight shift and had been employed with the company since 2010. Police say he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“It’s horrible because it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop replaying when you leave the scene, it doesn’t stop hurting as much, it doesn’t stop,” Wilczewski told CNN’s Erica Hill Wednesday night after recounting the horrifying experience.
Five of the deceased victims were identified by city officials as Lorenzo Gamble; Brian Pendleton; Kellie Pyle; Randall Blevins; and Tyneka Johnson. The sixth deceased victim was a 16-year-old boy who authorities are not naming because he was a minor, the city said. They were all Walmart employees, a company spokesperson told CNN.
Wilczewski told CNN she noticed the shooter shortly after 10 p.m. She was listening to another team lead speak before she turned her head toward the doorway and saw Bing standing with a gun pointed at the crowd – an image she says at first didn’t register as real.
But then she began to feel her chest vibrating and her ears ringing as a stream of gunshots erupted, she said. Wilczewski leaped under a table while the gunman walked off down a nearby hallway.
“I didn’t want to be loud, I didn’t want him to hear me and make him mad and make him come back,” Wilczewski told CNN.
Around her, some coworkers were on the floor, while others were laying on chairs – all still. She said she knew many were likely not alive but Wilczewski stayed because she didn’t want to leave them alone.
“The sound of the droplets (hitting the floor),” she said, “It replays, and replays and replays and replays.”
When he came back, Wilczewski said the gunman told her to get out from under the table. She obeyed, putting her bag out first to indicate she didn’t have a weapon, and raised her arms.
“I slid from out underneath the table and I was shaking,” she said. “He just had the gun up to my forehead.”
And then, he told her to go home, pulling the gun away and aiming it at the ceiling.
“I got up real slow and I tried not to look at everybody on the ground … and I had to touch the door which was covered (in blood) and I walked out the double doors to where you can see the aisles of Walmart and … I just remember gripping my bag and thinking, ‘If he’s going to shoot me in the back, well he’s going to have to try really hard cause I’m running,’ and I booked it,” she said. “I booked it and I didn’t stop until I got to my car and then I had a meltdown.”
Briana Tyler was also a new hire at the store. She had clocked into work shortly after 10 p.m. when she saw Bing standing in the doorway.
“Everybody was just waiting to, you know, figure out where they were going for the night and then all of a sudden you just hear ‘pa pa pa pa pa pa…