This guy was the night shift Team Lead, which as far as I can make out is the assistant manager in charge of the night shift.
According to witnesses, he entered the break room and started shooting at around 10PM (which would, I assume, be the start of his shift). He then killed himself.
Obviously, there is no excuse for what he did, but I'm gonna say it, I'm surprised that this does not happen more.
The months of November and December are, frankly, hell in retail, between the weeks of shifts without any breaks, and the isolation from family and holiday events, and the genuinely awful customers. Also, personally at least, I have always been promised one of the holidays off, just for the manager to jerk me around and make me work all of them. Night shift is especially bad because you're already isolated from society as well.
The amount of depression and anger that both I and coworkers have tied up in this is off the charts, and I have known several people who have decided to take their own lives.
This amount of pressure is both unnaceptable, and will also lead to more events like what happened last night.
What do we do about it? Since I left retail, I personally have never even stepped anywhere close to retail (or food service) for the entire three months before Christmas. I also do as many things as I can to drive home to people how soul numbingly bad it is. Like this post.
Please please do not contribute to this problem, and spread the word to others as well.