Just four days after a mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas Walmart left 22 people dead and more than two dozen injured, a man walked into a Walmart in Port St. Lucie, Florida looking for something “that would kill 200 people.” The man, since identified as 55-year-old Philip Michael Attey II, has since been located.
According to ABC News, Attey entered the Florida Walmart on the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 7 and asked a sales clerk working in the sporting goods department “can you sell me anything (or a gun) that would kill 200 people?”
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When the employee told the man “that isn’t funny,” Attey replied “I know” and once again asked if the clerk could sell him something “that would kill 200 people.”
Following the incident, the Walmart employee contacted police, who were able to identify and track down Attey, who told authorities that he is an anti-gun activist and that the statements he made at the Walmart “only helps his cause which is for Walmart to stop selling firearms.”
Attey was not taken into police custody nor was he charged. Authorities do not consider him to be a threat, though an investigation is ongoing.
The incident followed two other incidents in Walmart stores in just over a week. In late July, a former Walmart employee entered a Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi and shot and killed two employees and injured an officer who responded to the scene. On Saturday, Aug. 3, a gunman opened fire at an El Paso Walmart, killing 22 and injured nearly 30 in what is being investigated as domestic terrorism.
In a separate incident, a man was arrested at a Springfield, Missouri Walmart Neighborhood Market store after an off-duty officer spotted the man carrying a rifle. He also had over 100 rounds of ammunition. No shots were fired and police were on the scene three minutes after receiving the report.
In response to the continued gun violence, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon pledged a “thoughtful and deliberate” response, writing in an Instagram post that the company “will act in a way that reflects our best values and ideals, focused on the needs of our customers, associates and communities.”
According to several employees, this week the company began sending notices instructing employees to remove “any signing or displays that contain violent images or aggressive behavior,” including video games, turning off hunting channels, and cancelling “events promoting combat style or third-person shooter games.”
Thousands of employees, however, are urging the store to take a stricter approach, calling on the retailer to stop selling firearms altogether.
