VIRGINIA/New Delhi, Jun.1: A dissatisfied public
utility employee fired with a handgun upon co-workers at a municipal building
in Virginia on Friday afternoon, killing 12 people and injuring at least four
before he was shot dead by police, police authorities said.
But this is not new for the coastal resort of Virginia Beach as a
deadliest instance of U.S. gun violence happened there in November 2018, when a
dozen people were shot dead at a Los Angeles-area bar and grill by a gunman who
then killed himself.
Meanwhile, Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said the suspect in present carnage was armed with a .45-caliber pistol equipped with a “sound suppressor” device and “extended” ammunition magazines he used to reload repeatedly during the attack.
Survivors recalled scenes of pandemonium and fear that erupted as gunshots rang out, and workers scurried frantically for cover. “We just heard people yelling and screaming to get down,” Megan Banton, a public utilities worker, told a television station. recalling that she and co-workers barricaded themselves in their office.
The chief of police said the suspect engaged in a “long-term gun battle” with four police officers who confronted him inside, preventing the gunman from “committing more carnage in that building.”
