What began as an ordinary Sunday shopping trip ended with the death of a 77-year-old Virginia man and criminal charges against three people.
Bert D. Atienza had gone to Walmart in Norfolk, Virginia, with his wife, Josephine, after attending church. According to Josephine's account, the couple was simply trying to finish their grocery shopping when a confrontation began involving a teenage Walmart employee and a shopping cart.
Within minutes, a disagreement inside a store aisle had escalated.
By the following day, Bert Atienza was dead.
Norfolk police confirmed that officers responded to the Walmart at 1170 N. Military Highway on June 7, 2026, after receiving a report of an assault. They found Atienza unresponsive and transported him to a hospital, where he died on June 8 from his injuries. Authorities later classified his death as a homicide.
The case has since raised questions about how an apparently minor disagreement could turn into a fatal confrontation—and about what happened in the crucial minutes between the initial argument and the attack.
Two adults, Travis White, 44, and Erika Mitchell, 42, were arrested and are now facing second-degree murder charges, according to court records reported by the New York Post. Their teenage daughter, who was an employee at the Walmart, has also been charged in connection with the incident. Because she is a minor, authorities have not publicly identified her.
But the legal case is still unfolding.
The suspects are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court, and their attorney has disputed the characterization of the incident as a planned killing.
The tragedy has nevertheless left Atienza's family mourning a husband and father who, according to his widow, never made it home from what should have been an ordinary afternoon of shopping.
A Sunday That Began Normally
According to Josephine Atienza, she and her husband had spent the morning at church before going grocery shopping.
The couple had been married for 42 years.
Nothing about the beginning of that afternoon suggested that their lives were about to change permanently.
They entered the Walmart on North Military Highway and began shopping.
Josephine later told WTKR that a 17-year-old employee came quickly through the aisle with a shopping cart and nearly struck her.
Her husband reacted.
According to Josephine, Bert confronted the teenager and complained that the employee had almost hit his wife with the heavy cart and had not apologized.
It was the kind of interaction that can happen in a crowded store.
A customer feels someone has been careless.
Words are exchanged.
The people involved move on.
But this encounter did not end there.
Josephine said the teenager threw a can toward the couple as they walked away, although the object did not hit either of them.
She said the teenager then contacted her parents.
What happened next transformed the disagreement into something far more serious.
The Parents Arrive
According to the account provided by Josephine and reported by WTKR, Travis White and Erika Mitchell came to the store after receiving a call from their daughter.
The couple allegedly began looking for Atienza inside the store.
Surveillance footage obtained by WTKR reportedly captured portions of the subsequent encounter.
The footage became an important piece of the story because it provides visual evidence of the confrontation, although not every detail surrounding the incident can necessarily be established from surveillance video alone.
According to reports describing the footage, Atienza was looking at merchandise in an aisle when the adults approached him.
The encounter quickly became physical.
The New York Post reported that Atienza was allegedly shoved, grabbed and punched before being pushed into shelving and falling to the floor. One of the suspects allegedly kicked him after he fell.
Josephine was nearby.
She later described the moment to WTKR as terrifying.
She said she saw her husband bleeding and tried to keep him from getting up while waiting for an ambulance.
Atienza was reportedly still conscious immediately after the attack.
He spoke to his wife.
Then his condition deteriorated.
He lost consciousness before emergency medical help arrived.
"Help Me Get Up"
The details surrounding Atienza's final moments have become one of the most painful parts of the case.
Josephine told WTKR that her husband asked for help getting up.
She instead told him to stay where he was because he was bleeding and an ambulance was coming.
Then, she said, he stopped responding.
For a family member watching a loved one collapse, those moments can be difficult to comprehend.
An argument that had started only minutes earlier had become a medical emergency.
The couple was no longer thinking about groceries.
They were waiting for paramedics.