After an ordinary workday turned deadly at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, survivors and investigators are spending the Thanksgiving holiday questioning the motive of an employee who opened fire on coworkers, killing six before fatally turning the gun on himself.

Employees were preparing for an overnight shift Tuesday when a manager opened fire with a handgun in the break room just after 10 p.m., officials said.

Authorities identified the people killed as Randy Blevins, 70, Lorenzo Gamble, 43, Tyneka Johnson, 22, Brian Pendleton, 38, Kellie Pyle, 52, and a 16-year-old boy, who’s not being named because he’s a minor.

Two people injured in the shooting remained hospitalized in critical condition on Thanksgiving, and one injured victim was discharged Wednesday, a Sentara Norfolk General Hospital spokesperson said.

“I know this community, and I know it well. And I know that we will come together and lend a helping hand to the victims’ families,” Chesapeake Mayor Rick West said Wednesday in a video message.

The shooting, yet another example of how horrific gun violence upends American life in the most conventional settings, has left many grieving the loss of loved ones and survivors traumatized from what they witnessed. As the long journey of processing those emotions begins, questions on what could have led to the killings linger.

Donya Prioleau was inside the employee break room when the shooter began firing at coworkers, she said.

“We don’t know what made him do this,” Prioleau said. “None of us can understand why it happened.”

The gunman was identified as Andre Bing, who was working as overnight “team lead.” The 31-year-old had been working for Walmart since 2010, the company said. Authorities have said he had one semi-automatic handgun and several ammunition magazines.

Bing shot three of Prioleau’s friends “before I took off running. Half of us didn’t believe it was real until some of us saw all the blood on the floor,” she said.

Two slain victims and the shooter were found in the break room, another victim was found at the front of the store, and three others died at the hospital, Chesapeake city officials said. Officials were still trying to determine the exact number of injuries as some people may have taken themselves to hospitals.

The mayor plans to hold a vigil Monday evening at City Park, according to a tweet from the city.

“Today we are focused only of those hurt by Tuesday’s tragic event, but the police investigation continues and we expect to have additional information available tomorrow,” officials said in a Thursday tweet.

A motive for the shooting remained unclear Thursday, Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said.

This week’s violence was at least the third mass shooting in Virginia this month, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and comes against the backdrop of grief many Americans around the country are enduring this Thanksgiving as loved ones were lost or wounded in shootings.

Just 170 miles west of Chesapeake, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville allegedly opened fire on fellow students November 13, killing three of them on a bus returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, DC.

Over the weekend, a 22-year-old shot and killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and injured 19 others, authorities said. And six months ago Thursday, a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers, a tragedy in which victims are still seeking answers.

“How do you celebrate when your devastated. How do you give thanks, when you have nothing left to give. How do you fake it and smile when you wake up crying,” Brett Cross wrote Thursday of his nephew, Uziyah Garcia, who was killed in Uvalde.

Overall, the US has suffered more than 600 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Both the nonprofit and CNN define mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot, not including the assailant.

Speaking to the epidemic, Arizona’s former US Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, tweeted a Thanksgiving Eve plea for reforms: “We cannot continue to be the nation of gun violence and mass shootings. We cannot live like this. We must act.”