SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — In less than a week, the parking lot at the Southaven Walmart has come full circle, from crime scene to memorial. Now, employees and friends are once again gathering to work.
Monday, Walmart employees returned to the store where two managers were shot and killed. They’re trying to return to some sort of normalcy, despite the tragedy.
None of the employees wanted to talk, but Walmart’s corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas issued a statement saying in part, “We have programs and processes in place to help ensure there is minimal disruption in pay to our associates. As we continue recovery efforts inside the store, we’re creating shifts for our associates for work that’s needed to reopen our store. The clean-up recovery work is due to a fire there on Tuesday.”
We don’t know how much damage was caused by the fire or by the store’s sprinkler system, but a crew from a Memphis-based restoration company could been seen removing bags of debris and loading them into large Dumpsters next to the building.
It was a surreal site for Wallace Banks. His wife works at the Walmart in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
“She was real upset about it. She was real upset,” Banks said.
There’s still no date set for the Southaven Walmart to reopen.