Chesapeake, Virginia. (WAVY) — “I was like, God, please get me out of this situation,” Miles Whitaker said.
Whittaker is a senior at Norfolk State University from Virginia Beach.
He remembers every horrifying detail of November 22, 2022. The day six of his co-workers were shot and killed at Sam’s Seal Chesapeake Walmart.
“I got to work around 10 o’clock and my shift was 10 to 7, so I got to work. So, as soon as I got to work, we had a group meeting,” Whitaker said.
He said about 15 people attended the meeting. They were overnight stocking workers. The manager was talking to the group when the gunman entered.
“He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t give any warning and basically just starts shooting,” Whittaker said. “He was just the kind of player who would shoot in all directions. So, yeah, I grabbed a chair. I got under the table and tried to protect myself. It’s like being on the floor while you’re there. And like people are being beaten.”
The shooter also worked at Walmart and was a supervisor.
“Everyone told me he was a coach to watch,” Whittaker said.
Whitaker had only been working at Walmart for about a month at the time of the incident.
Whitaker said he didn’t think he could get the gunman into the room and get away with it.
“So when he left the room, I looked around and thought, ‘I can’t stay here,'” Whittaker said.
He explained what he remembered hearing.
“Of course all you could hear was gunshots and you could hear people moving chairs. People were just trying to get out of the way. So all you could hear was chairs rumbling and tables falling over. There was only sound. I didn’t really hear people screaming. I heard people gasping and saying, “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Whittaker then ran out the other door. The gunman’s gunfire could still be heard inside the store.
“I literally had to step over people’s bodies to get out of that room. It was very graphic and there was blood everywhere,” he said.
The six people who were unable to leave the store were Kelly Pyle, Lorenzo Gamble, Randy Blevins, Tineka Johnson, Fernando Chavez-Barron and Brian Pendleton.
“When I went to Brian’s funeral, I thought, ‘This could have been my funeral,'” Whittaker said. “At Brian’s funeral, I realized I was a survivor.”
Whittaker learned after the shooting that Pendleton was a distant relative by marriage. He remembers their last work conversation.
“He was such a jokester,” Whitaker said. “Literally right before that [the shooting] happened.I think he bought something from a vending machine or something, but he [Brian] I was like, “Why didn’t you give it to me?” He was very playful. He was just a one-night stand,” Whittaker said.
Whitaker said she will be returning to attend the memorial service for the first time since the shooting, a year since the shooting.
“[To] Let’s take up some space,” he said.
He is majoring in Theater and Theater at NSU. To mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting, he released a song and video about his survival. This song is called “November 22nd.”
“I’d be lying if I said my life wasn’t in danger. I stayed up all night with images in my head,” Whittaker said in the song. “When they called his name, I thought to myself, what if he didn’t miss? What if I was on that list?”