A Walmart employee who survived last week’s mass shooting at a Virginia store has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company for allegedly continuing to employ the shooter, a store supervisor with “known propensities for violence, threats, and strange behavior.”
Donya Prioleau filed the lawsuit, which appears to be the first related to the shooting, in Chesapeake Circuit Court on Tuesday. Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, did not immediately respond to a written request for comment on the lawsuit.
According to Prioleau’s lawsuit, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as physical and emotional distress, after witnessing the rampage in the store’s breakroom on Nov. 22.
According to the lawsuit, “bullets whizzed by Plaintiff Donya Prioleau’s face and left side, barely missing her.” “She witnessed the brutal murder of several of her coworkers on either side of her.”
The lawsuit states that, “Ms. Prioleau looked one of her coworkers in the eyes right after she was shot in the neck.” Ms. Prioleau witnessed the bullet wound in her coworker’s neck, the blood rushing out of it, and her coworker’s helpless expression.”
According to police, store supervisor Andre Bing, 31, fatally shot six employees and injured several others before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
Bing “had a personal vendetta against several Walmart employees and kept a ‘kill list’ of potential targets prior to the shooting,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Prioleau filed a formal complaint on a Walmart Global Ethics Statement Form alleging that Bing “bizarrely and inappropriately commented on Ms. Prioleau’s age.” Bing told her, “Isn’t your lady clock ticking? Shouldn’t you have children?”
Prioleau also claimed that Bing had harassed her because she was “poor and short.” She informed Walmart that Bing had called her a “bitch” under his breath, according to the suit.
“Despite Mr. Bing’s long-standing pattern of disturbing and threatening behavior,” the lawsuit claims, “Walmart knew or should have known about Mr. Bing’s disturbing and threatening behavior, but failed to terminate Mr. Bing, restrict his access to common areas, conduct a thorough background investigation, or subject him to a mental health examination.”