WATCH: Chesapeake officer assists customer during Walmart shooting

Aug 01, 2023

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Racing to a chaotic scene after gunfire inside the Walmart off Battlefield Blvd. in Chesapeake.

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November 22, 2022.

Officer Albert White remembers it well.

"When I pulled up, I did see people running out of both doors," he said. Yes, there were people running out of the store and it was chaos."

He was very cautious about where he parked near the store entrance.

"I didn't want to pull up too far because I didn't know if the shooter was going to be shooting out of the doors," he said.

Officer White was first on the scene.

"It's in a manner of seconds, I get out of my car...first thing I see is someone stumbling to me with a gunshot wound to their neck. I went into my trunk and grabbed my medic kit, started packing her wound on her neck and then I found she was shot again in her stomach. And at that time I was asking her questions; I was trying to find out where the shooter was," he said. "She was relaying that information to me while I was relaying that information over the air to the arriving officers so they know what's going on and what to expect when they get here."

Officer White stayed busy while waiting for more help to get there.

"My partner had arrived, I told him to hold the wound on her neck, hold the pressure, while I started packing the wound on her stomach," White said. "And then by that time, another Walmart employee came up to me and stated he was shot. Soon as I had him sit down, then I lifted up his shirt and he said 'I think I've been shot in my stomach', so I started packing his stomach."

As paramedics arrived to take over caring for the wounded, Officer White joined other officers inside, sweeping across the Walmart, and getting everyone out.

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As they work on clearing the store, his body-worn camera reveals he notices something. He spots a shopper in the back of the store in the toy department and tells her,

"M'am you need to leave we have an active shooter in here," he told a customer.

He helps escort the customer all the way out of the store and as she struggles to head to her car from her motorized shopping cart, the body-worn camera video shows Officer White offering more help.

White was a rookie cop, fresh out of the academy and on the streets, solo for maybe four months. 

"In this job that I'm in, the field that I'm in, you have to keep a level head, you have to. The people that have been shot, you have to let them know that they're gonna be ok," he said. "And I don't want to panic because if I panic, they panic."

White says he spent a lot of time trying to reassure those employees.

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"I feel that's very important because these people have kids. They have families to go back to and they want to know they're going to be ok."

It should not be surprising to learn, being a cop is in White's DNA—his dad is a retired Norfolk police officer.

"So that's the whole reason I wanted to join because of him," White said. "So I felt like it was in my blood to do this and help—I love helping the community. I love helping it and I thought this job was the best way to show my gratitude to the community."

For all those reasons, News 3 presented Officer White with an Everyday Hero award along with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank. While was very appreciative, "Wow that is amazing! Thank you so much!"

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