Bert Atienza, a 77-year-old Walmart shopper, died after an alleged attack inside a Norfolk store on 7 June. Josephine said the fight began after a shopping cart incident while the couple was shopping after church, and the case now centers on what happened in the aisle before he lost consciousness.
Police responded at about 3.20pm after receiving a report of an assault. Atienza was found unresponsive, taken to a hospital, and died the following day from blunt head trauma. Medical officials ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma.
Josephine at Walmart in Norfolk
Josephine said a 17-year-old Walmart employee came quickly down the aisle and nearly struck her with a shopping cart. She said Atienza and the worker exchanged words before the employee threw a can toward the couple as they walked away.
She also described the moment after the attack in plain detail: "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,”" Josephine said. "I look at him again. He has no more consciousness."
surveillance video and White and Mitchell
The store surveillance video shows what appears to be Atienza looking at items on a shelf when White and Mitchell approached and attacked him while their daughter watched. Atienza was shoved from behind, grabbed and punched, then pushed into a shelving unit and knocked to the floor, where one of the suspects allegedly kicked him.
White, 44, and Mitchell, 42, were arrested days later and are being held without bond in the Norfolk jail. Their teenage daughter was also charged with assault and battery, aggravated malicious wounding, and conspiracy to commit a felony, and she is being held in the Norfolk juvenile detention center.
Norfolk jail and juvenile detention
The case now turns on the charges tied to the adults and the teenager, and on the video that reportedly shows how a cart dispute became a fatal assault. For readers who were in the store that afternoon, the immediate factual picture is no longer just a reported altercation: a 77-year-old shopper died, two adults are in jail without bond, and a minor is in juvenile detention while the assault case moves forward.
