Walmart customer, 77, beaten to death by parents of teen employee after shopping cart dispute, widow says
An elderly Walmart customer was beaten to death by the parents of a teen employee who he had argued with after accusing her of nearly ramming his wife with a shopping cart, according to his grieving widow.
Bert Atienza died of blunt head trauma at a hospital on June 8, a day after two people attacked him inside a Walmart in Norfolk, Va., WTKR reported on Monday.
“My husband was still able to speak, he said, ‘Help me, get up,’ but I told him, ‘no you’re bleeding. Your mouth is bleeding. Ambulance is coming,” Atienza’s wife Josephine said.
“I look at him again. He has no more consciousness.”
The 77-year-old was grocery shopping with his wife of 42 years after a morning at church when a 17-year-old employee tore down the aisle the couple was in, almost clipping Josephine with a cart.
“He said, ‘You almost hit my wife with your heavy cart, and you did not even say excuse me or apologize to her,'” Josephine Atienza told the outlet.
“If he sees things that he doesn’t like, he will tell it to you straightforward. That’s how it is. He doesn’t care who you are,” Josephine said, explaining her husband’s personality.
Atienza and the unidentified employee argued for a moment before the worker chucked a can towards the couple as they walked away, she said.
The teen allegedly called her parents for backup and Travis White and Erika Mitchell were hunting down the elderly couple inside the store minutes later.
Bert Atienza was browsing a shelf in one of the aisles when White and Mitchell allegedly attacked him as their working daughter looked on, according to store surveillance video obtained by WTKR.
The elderly shopper was shoved from the back, grabbed and punched as onlookers walked away.
Atienza was then shoved into the shelving unit and collapsed to the ground, as one of the suspects kicked the injured man.
“They crowded my husband, one of the adults hit him in the face. He fell down on the floor. I was terrified. I don’t know what’s going on,” Josephine said.
“While he’s on the floor, they’re still kicking him and I told them stop. My husband has heart problems,” Josephine said.
Josephine was left sitting on the ground holding her husband in her lap in a heartbreaking image captured on video.
Bert Atienza spoke briefly to his wife but then lost consciousness before help arrived.
Atienza was rushed to a hospital where he died the next day.
Medical officials ruled his death a homicide.
White, 44, and Mitchell, 42, were arrested days later and charged with malicious wounding by mob, aggravated malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit a felony, WAVY reported.
The charges were later increased to second-degree murder, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Their attorney contested the charges, saying the suspected killers were defending their daughter and the alleged assault was not premeditated.
“They did not go there, intending for any of this to happen. It was an emotional situation. Their daughter called them. She was distraught. They went, as any parent would do, to try to make sure that their daughter was safe and then the situation kind of erupted. It was spontaneous almost,” James Broccoletti told WTKR.
“We think that the evidence establishes at best an assault because they punched the gentleman, there is some evidence my client may have kicked him, but that’s simple assault, that’s a misdemeanor. There is nothing that goes further than that, that indicates that there was any chance or likelihood or probability that this man would die as a result of this.”
They are being held in Norfolk jail without bond.
Their teen daughter, who no longer works for Walmart, was charged with assault and battery, aggravated malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit a felony, WAVY reported.
She is being held at Norfolk Juvenile Detention Center, but officials are withholding her name because of her age.
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