CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — An employee who survived the mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, last week has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company.
The lawsuit, filed by Donya Prioleau, claims she submitted a complaint about the gunman two months prior to the shooting that took the lives of six Walmart employees. Store supervisor Andre Bing, 31, fatally shot six employees and wounded several others before he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, police said.
Prioleau had been working at the Walmart Supercenter near Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake for more than a year. She was working the night of the shooting and claims to have narrowly avoided being shot.
Law firm Morgan & Morgan filed the suit on Tuesday, one week after the deadly shooting.
The lawsuit lists the suspect’s alleged pattern of disturbing behavior leading up to the deadly mass shooting, including making bizarre, rude and inappropriate comments about Prioleau’s age, gender, socioeconomic status and appearance.
“Bullets whizzed by Plaintiff Donya Prioleau’s face and left side, barely missing her,” the lawsuit states. “She witnessed several of her coworkers being brutally murdered on either side of her.”
The lawsuit adds: “Ms. Prioleau looked at one of her coworkers in the eyes right after she had been shot in the neck. Ms. Prioleau saw the bullet wound in her coworker’s neck, the blood rushing out of it, and the shocked look on her coworker’s helpless face.”
The lawsuit alleges that Bing “had a personal vendetta against several Walmart employees and kept a ‘kill list’ of potential targets prior to the shooting.”
The lawsuit also states that Prioleau had submitted a formal complaint on a Walmart Global Ethics Statement Form indicating that Bing had “bizarrely and inappropriately commented on Ms. Prioleau’s age.”
The lawsuit alleges that Bing told her: “Isn’t your lady clock ticking? Shouldn’t you be having kids?”
Prioleau also complained that Bing had harassed her for “being poor and being short,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that she also informed Walmart that Bing called her a “bitch” under his breath.
“Despite Mr. Bing’s long-standing pattern of disturbing and threatening behavior, 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,” the lawsuit states.
In addition, the complaint alleges that Bing “repeatedly made veiled threats of violence,” stating that people will “remember [his] name” if he was ever fired and ominously asking employees if they had received their active shooter training.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
