CHESAPEAKE — It’s been nearly 5 months since the mass shooting at the Walmart took the lives of 6 people and rocked the Chesapeake community.
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As they continue their journey towards healing, and this new beginning with reopening their store, their manager tells us they’re not letting this tragedy define them.
“When you work in a Walmart store, it becomes your home and your family,” said store manager Alycia Mixon. “So it was really a great experience that we were able to come back.”
Mixon spoke to us on a private tour of the newly remodeled Chesapeake Walmart after the tragic shooting took place here back in November.
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“This situation was the most challenging, but I think it really showed me that people come first and the relationships and the bonds that you build with each and every person that you encounter, really do make a difference,” said Mixon.
When customers first walk in, they’ll be greeted by this beautiful new mural of a blue heron and the Jordan Bridge which represent the city.
And as we walked the aisles of the store, we noticed it underwent a complete transformation from top to bottom.
From having a new layout, interactive features, new signage, to other upgrades.
“What has it been like for you to see all of these changes come to fruition from beginning to end?”
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“It's actually been pretty amazing for me,” said Mixon. “Really, Walmart really allowed me to do the store the way the community needed it to be done. And I was very, very happy to have a seat at the table for that. So I'm just excited, and now that I'm excited about it, I want to see how the customers react to it.”
The store has also built a memorial space featuring six benches in honor of the six lives lost that day.
“It's a little bit of a loss, right? So when you lose an associate, no matter the reason, it's part of your family.”
She told us they were able to retain 60% of their associates, and those who have seen the memorial have been very moved by it.
“Our goal is that this area will allow associates, community, family members to be able to come and be able to reflect, to share stories. And to really make sure that we're honoring the memory of the souls that were lost.”
Alycia says she hopes it helps them on their journey towards healing.
“Imagining what happened here five months ago, does still sometimes… It's hard, right?”
But aren’t letting this tragedy define them.
“We're really grateful that we were able to do something in their memory, we really are,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that it was special, and that everyone was able to enjoy it.”
The memorial is open to the community to come and see.
However, there are no names on any of the benches or in the memorial and Walmart representatives we spoke with told us they currently have no plans to put any names up.
We weren’t able to see the break room where the incident unfolded, but we were told it’s different and more comfortable for employees but still weren’t told in what ways it was specifically changed.
