‘It’s the guns’: violent week in a deadly year prompts familiar US responses

Thanksgiving week has seen 22 people killed and 44 injured by guns, as 2022 is shaping up to be one of the worst years in recent memory

It was the final hour of extended store opening on Tuesday at the Walmart Supercenter in the commercial heart of Chesapeake, Virginia's second-largest city. Shoppers scrambled to make last-minute purchases for Thanksgiving. Then shots rang out.

Shortly after 10pm an employee, said to be a manager, entered a break room at the back of the store where staff were gathering at the start of the overnight shift, and according to an eyewitness just started spraying". The gunman used a pistol to shoot his victims and then turned the weapon on himself, all within minutes.