An officer-involved shooting at Walmart in Harrisonburg that occurred on Sunday night is currently under investigation. HPD officers are dispatched to the environment, the departmentās communication director, Michael Parks,Ā says he will provide an update shortly.
A witness shared, “Anyone else hears chatter about an ACTIVE shooter at the Walmart off Burgess Road in Harrisonburg taking place currently? One of my employees just texted me and informed me they were in Walmart while the shooting was happening.”
This is a developing story.
About Harrisonburg, Virginia
In the Shenandoah Valley area of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, the independent city of Harrisonburg is located. Despite the fact that the two are distinct jurisdictions, it also serves as the county seat for the neighboring Rockingham County. There were 51, 814 people living there as per the 2020 Census. For statistical reasons, the city of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are combined to form the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which was estimated to have 126,562 residents in 2011.
James Madison Institution (JMU), a public research institution with more than 20,000 students, and Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), a private liberal arts college connected with the Mennonites, are both located in Harrisonburg. Despite the fact that the city has no prior connections to President James Madison, JMU was originally known as Madison College before changing its name to James Madison University in 1977. EMU owes much of its origin to the sizeable Mennonite community in the Shenandoah Valley, where many Pennsylvania Dutch pioneers moved in pursuit of the fertile, uninhabited property beginning in the middle of the 18th century.
The city has become a bastion of ethnic and linguistic diversity in recent years. Over 1,900 refugees have been settled in Harrisonburg since 2002. As of 2014, Hispanics or Latinos of any race make up 19% of the city’s population. Harrisonburg City Public Schools (HCPS) students speak 55 languages in addition to English, with Spanish, Arabic, and Kurdish being the most common languages spoken.
Over one-third of HCPS students are English as a second language (ESL) learners. Language learning software company Rosetta Stone was founded in Harrisonburg in 1992, and the multilingual “Welcome Your Neighbors” yard sign originated in Harrisonburg in 2016.