The Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting took place earlier this month will reopen with a memorial to honor the 22 people who died.
Walmart still needs to renovate the store before it can reopen, and the plans for the memorial are in the “early stages,” officials told the New York Post on Thursday.
“We approached this from a standpoint of listening and engaging those within the city and our associates,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said about the company’s decision to reopen the Walmart. “And they’ve ultimately told us that they want to get back to work and to get back to work at their store.”
Hargrove said renovations will take three to four months to complete.
“It’s basically taking the inside of the store and remodeling and reworking everything inside, so it’ll be new fixtures, new flooring and new merchandise,” he said. “But we’ve made the decision to remodel the entire facility.”
The Aug. 3 shooting at the store resulted in the death of 22 people with another 25 people injured. In the wake of the El Paso shooting, liberal activists and at least six Democratic presidential candidates have urged Walmart to stop selling firearms.
“We will strive to use these experiences to identify additional actions we can take to strengthen our processes, improve our technology and create an even safer environment in our stores,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in response.
